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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 




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ESSAY ON LINCOLN 



Was He an Inspired Prophet? 



BY 

MILTON R. SCOTT. 



NEWARK, OHIO 
1906. 



Eas 



54'<i 



^ 



SEP 11 1906 



^4t'.:..-i;ni?>i^g_ 



Copyrighted, 1906, by the Author. 



"O, slow to smite and swift to spare. 

Gentle and merciful and just! 
Who, in the fear of God, didst bear 

The sword of pozver — the nation's trust! 

"In sorrow by thy bier zve stand, 

Amid the awe that hushes all, 
And speak the anguish of a land 

That shook with horror at thy fall. 

"Thy task is done; the bond arc free; 

We bear thee to an honored grave. 
Whose proudest monument shall be 

The broken fetters of the slave. 

"Pure zvas thy life; its bloody close 

Has placed thee with the sons of light, 
Among the noble host of those 

Who perished in the cause of Right." 

— Wm. C. Bryant. 
3 



"Mr. Lincoln has furnished the American people a states- 
man ivithout a statesman's craftiness, a politician without a 
politician's meanness, a ruler ivithout the pride of place or 
power, an ambitious man ivithout selfisJmess, and a success- 
ful man without vanity. This true manhood — simple, un- 
pretending, sympathetic with all mankind and reverent to- 
ward God — is among the noblest of earth's treasures; and 
through it God has breathed and will continue to breathe into 
the nation the elevating and purifying pozver of His own 
divine life. — J. G. Holland. 

4 



PREFACE. 



If the readers of this Essay are stimulated to a 
fuller study of Mr. Lincoln's life and character and 
to a higher appreciation of his genius and worth 
and his services to mankind — and if in addition to 
this they are filled with the desire to emulate his vir- 
tues and become partakers of his spirit, — the author 
will feel that his thought and labor have not been in 
vain. M. R. S. 

5 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

Chapter I. By Way of Introduction 9 

Chapter II. Functions of the Prophet 11 

Chapter III. Lincoln's Statesmanship 22 

Chapter IV. His Moral Teachings 26 

Chapter V. His More Direct Prophecies... 35 

Chapter VI. His Life and Character 45 

Chapter VII. His Religious Faith 52 

Chapter VIII. Lessons to be Learned from 

Lincoln's Life 64 

Appendix "A" S^ 

Appendix "B" 87 

Appendix ' 'C" 90 

Appendix "D" 93 

Appendix "E" 95 

7 



ESSAY ON LINCOLN: 

Was He an Inspired Prophet? 



CHAPTER I. 

By Way of Introduction. 

MIRACLES will never cease; the mysteries of 
Nature and Providence will always present 
themselves to our eyes ; the Spirit of God will always 
move on the face of the waters ; divine men will 
always appear on the earth. 

Who of us can measure the length and breadth 
and height and depth of the all-pervading Soul? 
Who can comprehend its various revelations, manifes- 
tations and incarnations? 

As the wind bloweth where it listeth, and as the 
stars run their appointed courses through the heavens, 
so this Soul, this mysterious Energy, this incompre- 
hensible Power, this Supreme Essence, this Divine 
Spirit, worketh hitherto and worketh unceasingly, ac- 
cording to its own law, and according to that eternal 

9 



lo Essay on Lincoln: 

Order or Principle or Purpose that no man can com- 
prehend. God is, and man is — what more need we 
know concerning the mysterious Providence whose 
creatures and subjects we are?* 



"Canst thou by searching find out God? Canst thou 
find out the Almighty unto perfection?" — Job ii; 7. 

"No word or phrase that we can apply to Deity can 
be other than an extremely inadequate and unsatisfactory 
symbol." — John Fiske. 

"Of all points of faith the being of God is accompanied 
with most difficulty and borne in upon our minds with most 
power." — Cardinal Newman. 

"God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal and unchangeable in 
his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness and 
truth." — Westminster Catechism. 

"It is dangerous for the feeble brain of man to wade 
far into the doings of the Most High, whom although to know 
be life, and joy to make mention of his name; yet our sound- 
est knowledge is to know him not as indeed he is, neither 
can know him, and our safest eloquence concerning him is 
our silence, whereby we confess that his glory is inexplicable, 
and his greatness is beyond our capacity and reach." — Rich- 
ard Hooker. 



CHAPTER II. 

Functions of the Prophet. 

FOR what purpose has the gift of prophecy been 
given to the sons of men ? What is the sign and 
seal of the prophet's commission? How shall we test 
the correctness of his vision and know whether his 
message be true or false? How can any man prove 
to us that he possesses the spirit of prophecy and is 
therefore worthy to carry the prophet's staff in his 
hand and wear the prophet's mantle on his shoulders ? 
First of all, the prophet must be a teacher com- 
petent to teach — he must needs have a measure of 
Truth to impart to us greater than that which we 
ourselves possess. All rational creatures may be said 
to have some measure of truth committed to them; 
but it is manifestly the order of Providence that the 
light and knowledge in men's souls shall be very un- 
equal,* even as the trees of the forest differ in size 
and the stars of heaven differ in brightness and glory. 



* "For the kingdom of heaven is as a man traveling 
into a far country, who called his own servants, and dehv- 
ered unto them his goods. 

"And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, 
and to another one, to every man according to his several 
ability; and straightway took his journey." — Matthew xxv : 
14-15. 



12 Essay on Lincoln: 

Also, we think it is not the order of Providence 
that the entire vokime of Truth should be communi- 
cated to men once for all ; for if that were the case, 
the spirit of prophecy would cease to work in men's 
souls, and the prophetic office would be known no 
more. Rather do we believe not only that no revela- 
tion of Truth is complete and perfect, but that its 
most elementary and fundamental principles need new 
exposition, new illustration, new illumination, yea, and 
new incarnation. The divine word (logos) must ever 
be made flesh. 

"God himself can not do without wise men," said 
Martin Luther. And the poet Lowell has sung: 

"New occasions teach new duties; 

Time makes ancient good urtcouth; 
They must onward still and upward, 

Who would keep abreast of Truth ! 
"Lo, her camp-fires gleam before us, 

We ourselves must pilgrims be, 
Laiinch our Mayflower, and steer boldly 

Through the desp'rate wintry sea. 
Nor attempt the future's portal. 

With the past's blood-rusted Key!" 

Moral science, no less than physical science, must 
be progressive ; and it will forever require the living 
souls of men for its expression and interpretation. 
No man has yet spoken the last word concerning its 
principles and their application to human life, nor 



Was He an Inspired Prophet? 13 

can we conceive it possible that such a word should 
ever be spoken. If constant evolution be the law of 
the physical world, it is no less the law of the moral 
and spiritual world. "He who would gather immortal 
palms must not be hindered by the name of goodness, 
but must explore it if it be goodness. Nothing is at 
last sacred but the integrity of our own mind." 

How highly favored, then, is the man who is en- 
dued with such knowledge of the truth that he may 
communicate to his fellow-men a message worthy of 
their acceptation. And still more highly favored is 
he when they are ready to receive his message, and 
he knows how to communicate it unto them. 

But be it remembered, that the "knowledge of the 
truth" of which we have spoken must be something 
more than the prophet has learned from other men. 
To some extent, at least, his message must be his own, 
and no other man's. Not only must the spirit of Truth 
dwell in his soul, but he must meet the Lord of Truth 
on the summit of the mountain alone. 

Teachers of rote and rule have their place and 
their work among us ; but the prophet's office is to 
open men's eyes, that they may see and to open their 
ears that they may hear and to quicken their moral 
sense, that they may understand the truth for them- 
selves. 

And if he aspires to be a leader as well as a 
prophet, he must know how to part the waters of the 



14 Essay on Lincoln: 

sea, so that we may pass over it on our journey to the 
promised land. 

The prophet must indeed be our instructor; but 
his instruction must be given to us in such a manner 
that our own faculties shall be brought into active 
exercise, and that we ourselves shall become children 
of the light, and not be the mere recipients of his 
message or the subjects of his authority.* 

To this end he must know the minds and hearts 
of men as well as the revelations of the Spirit — he 
must reflect the light of the Spirit into our conscious- 
ness, so as to reveal us to ourselves and enable us to 
see our relation to the truths which he communicates. 
All true teaching — especially all moral teaching — is 
far more than the communication of knowledge ; it is 
the contact of mind with mind, of thought with 
thought, of feeling with feeling, of soul with soul. 
The true teacher must impart his very life to those 
whom he teaches. *T am come that they might have 
LIFE, and that they might have it more abundantly," 
said the great teacher of the Orient. 

'Tf a man can communicate himself, he can teach," 
says Emerson, ''but not otherwise. He teaches who 
gives, and he learns who receives. There is no teach- 



* "Human nature is not a machine to be built after a 
model, and set to do the exact work prescribed for it, but 
a tree which requires to grow and develop on all sides, 
according to the tendency of the inward forces which make 
it a living thing." — John Stuart Mill. 



Was He an Inspired Prophet? 15 

ing, until the pupil is brought into the same state or 
principle in which you are ; a transfusion takes place ; 
he is you, and you are he. Then is a teaching, and by 
no mischance or bad company can he quite lose the 
benefit." 

If this be a fundamental law or principle in the 
teaching of science and philosophy, how much more 
fundamental and important does it become in the 
teaching of morality and religion ; for neither morality 
nor religion can be considered an exact science ; nor 
will it ever be possible to reduce either of them to 
precise formulas. 

If it were possible to lay down precise rules of 
morality and cause them to be strictly followed by 
all men, we would cease to be moral beings, if we 
did not cease to be intelligent ones ; for as surely as 
the eye is made for seeing and the ear for hearing, so 
surely are our moral faculties given to us that we 
may discern the truth and may choose and prefer the 
right course of action as well as follow it. 

Good conduct may be defined not as walking on 
a single straight line, but as keeping a proper balance 
while walking between two lines, the one on the right 
and the other on the left. And therefore it becomes 
the high office of the moral teacher to quicken and 
inspire our moral faculties, so that we shall not only 
keep this balance, but shall learn how and when and 
where to draw the Hnes between which we must walk. 



1 6 Essay on Lincoln: 

To some extent at least every man must be a law 
unto himself and must create — or evolve — his own 
rules and standards of morality. The man who does 
not know that moral science is subjective as well as 
objective — shall we say subjective rather than objec- 
tive ? — is very deficient in his knowledge of the truth, 
to say the least. And still more unfortunate is he if 
he has no ''inner light" to guide his steps ; or if the 
light that is in him be darkness. 

Only as the prophet brings us into communication 
with the same spirit of which he himself is possessed 
can we recognize his commission ; only as he inspires 
us can we believe that he is inspired ; only as he makes 
us realize that we are partakers of the divine nature* 
can we believe that he is a divine messenger; only as 
he shows us the son of God in ourselves can we see 
the son of God in him. In a word, his message must 
be vital ; and it must be assimilated by ourselves before 
we can realize that it has come down to us from God 
out of heaven. 

And let no man imagine that he can communicate 
a larger measure of virtue or even a larger knowledge 
of virtue to his fellows than that which he incarnates 
in himself and illustrates by his life and character. 
The prophet must be our exemplar as well as our in- 



* "Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and 
precious promises, that by these ye might be partakers of 
the divine nature." — ii Peter i : 4, 



Was He an Inspired Prophet? 17 

structor, if he would lead us through the wilderness 
into the promised land.* 

And unless he be such an examplar we can not 
understand his message — we can not even know the 
meaning of his words. How can any one teach or 
preach that which he knows not — and is not ? 

The prophet who would give light to the blind 
and strength to the weak, and li!e and hope to all men 
must be a seer — he must have a visiONf so large and 
clear that his message will prove itself, even as the 
sun proves its office in the heavens by the light and 
heat which it imparts to its planets and the attraction 
which it exercises upon them. 

The prophet must needs have some prescience of 
future events ; for verily the future is no more wholly 
hid from our eyes than is the past, but his predictions 
concerning them must come out of his comprehension 
of the past and present and his knowledge of the prin- 
ciples that enter into the moral order of the universe. 
His prophecies must be both natural and supernatural, 
else they will be untrue. if 

* "We draw new life from the heroic example. The 

, prophet has drunk more deeply than any of us of the cup 

i of bitterness; but his countenance is so unshaken, and he 

> speaks such mightv words of cheer, that his will becomes 

I our will, and our life is kindled at his own." — Prof. William 

\ James. 

t "Where there is no vision the people perish." — 
Proverbs xxix : 18. 

X "Ever3^thing that is supernatural is natural ; and 
everything that is natural is supernatural." — Lyman Abbott. 

2 E L 



1 8 Essay on Lincoln: 

If it be the high office of poetry to reveal to us 
the beauty which dwells in Nature in spite of all 
her (seemingly) unfriendly manifestations, and if it 
be the high office of music to mediate between the 
discords and disorders of our lives and the ideals of 
harmony and beneficent purpose that exist in our souls, 
so it must be the office of the -prophet to interpret the 
varied experiences of our lives in such a manner that 
we shall see the wisdom of the eternal Providence and 
justify the ways of God to men. Only thus can he 
prove himself the daysman or mediator whom the souls 
of men are ever searching after. 

To these high qualifications must be added that 
passion or enthusiasm of humanity which can only be 
defined by giving it the joint names of Sympathy and 
Love. The prophet who would thrill the souls of men 
with light and fill them with the knowledge of the 
truth must not only feel the highest interest in his 
race, but must cherish the largest sympathy and re- 
spect for individuals of every class.* He must carry 
men's burdens on his shoulders ; he must share in their 
sorrows; he must be merciful to their transgressions; 
he must heal their infirmities ; he must help their un- 
belief. Nay, more than this; while cherishing the 



* "He who is truly humane considers every human be- 
ing as such interesting and important, and without waiting 
to criticise each individual specimen, pays in advance to 
all alike the tribute of good wishes and sympathy." — Prof. 
J. R. Seeley. 



Was He an Inspired Prophet? 19 

highest ideals of virtue in his own soul, he must enter 
into the very lives of his fellow-men; he must search 
out and recognize their better natures* he must realize 
his kinship and affinity with them ; he must be willing 
to endure privation and reproach for their sakes ; he 
must find his highest satisfaction in loving and serving 
and seeking to save those who are lost.f He who 
would do battle against the evil that is in the world 
must suffer on account of it — and be willing so to 
suffer — as well as condemn it ; he who would save 
transgressors must consent to be numbered with them.J 
In speaking of the triumphs of Christianity in the 
Roman empire Macaulay, in his essay on Milton, says : 
''God, the uncreated, the incomprehensible, the invis- 
ible, attracted few worshipers. It was before Deit}r 
embodied in a human form, walking among men, par- 
taking of their infirmities, leaning on their bosoms, 
weeping over their graves, slumbering in the manger 
and bleeding on the cross, that the prejudices of the 
synagogue and the doubts of the academy and the pride 



* "To be trusted is to be saved ! And if we try to 
influence or elevate others, we shall soon see that our suc- 
cess is in proportion to their belief of our belief in them. 
For the respect of another is the first restoration of the 
self-respect a man has lost; our ideal of what he is becomes- 
to him the hope and pattern of what he may become." — 
Henry Drummond. 

t "For the son of man is come to seek and to save that 
which was lost." — Luke xix : 10. 

X "And he was numbered with the transgressors." — 
Isaiah lhi: 10. 



20 Essay on Lincoln : 

of the portico and the fasces of the Hctor and the 
swords of thirty legions were humbled in the dust." 

The prophet who loves us because he is one of us, 
and is willing to serve us, even to the laying down of 
his life in our behalf, will not only constrain us to walk 
in the paths of wisdom and virtue, but will give us 
visions of truth and beauty like unto those which he 
himself enjoys.* He may not transport us to the sev- 
enth heaven of delight, but he will enable us to see the 
meaning of our lives and to appreciate the Wisdom 
and Goodness that are from everlasting to everlasting. 

"The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me," cried 
Isaiah of old, ''because the Lord hath anointed me 
to preach good tidings unto the meek ; he hath sent me 
to bind up the broken-hearted; to proclaim liberty to 
the captives and the opening of the prison to them 
that are bound ; to proclaim the acceptable year of the 
Lord and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort 
all that mourn ; to appoint unto them that mourn in 
Zion; to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for 
mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heavi- 



* "Ideas are often poor ghosts; our sun-filled eyes can 
not discern them; they pass athwart us in their vapor, and 
can not make themselves felt. But sometimes they are made 
flesh ; they breathe upon us with warm breath ; they look 
at us with sad, sincere eyes, and speak to us in appealing 
tones ; they are clothed in a living human soul, with all its 
conflicts, its faith and its love. Then their presence is a 
power; then they shake us like a passion; and we are 
drawn after them with gentle compulsion, as flame follows 
flame." — George Eliot. 



Was He an Inspired Prophet: 21 

ness, that they might be called trees of righteousness, 
the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified."* 
And thus the prophet Ezekiel: "The hand of the 
Lord was upon me and carried me out in the Spirit of 
the Lord, and set me down in the midst of the valley 
which was full of bones, and caused me to pass by 
them round about ; and behold there were very many 
in the open valley, and lo, they were very dry. And 
he said unto me. Son of man, can these bones live? 
And I answered, O Lord God, thou knowest. Again 
he said unto me. Prophesy upon these bones and say 
unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the 
Lord. Thus saith the Lord God unto these bones. 
Behold I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye 
shall live ; and ye shall know that I am the Lord. * * 
So I prophesied as he commanded me ; and the breath 
came into them, and they lived, and stood upon their 
feet, an exceeding great army.f 



* Isaiah Ixxi : 1-3. 

t Ecekiel xxxvii : 1-10. 



CHAPTER III. 

Lincoln's Statesmanship. 

WITH due reserve and reverence should we ever 
speak concerning the divine purpose or pur- 
poses in the affairs of men ; but surely the pre-eminent 
fitness of Abraham Lincoln for the high political office 
he was called to fill and the pre-eminent wisdom and 
statesmanship which he manifested in the administra- 
tion of our government ought to leave no doubt in our 
minds concerning the Providential order in his case. 
And even the most skeptical, we think, must concede 
that his genius and character can only be accounted for 
by considering him the special product of the mysteri- 
ous Power — call that power by whatever name we 
may — that controls the heavens and the earth and 
shapes the destiny of men and nations.* To say the 
least, we may challenge the history of the world 
to present a case in which any man was more marvel- 
ously fitted for the management of a great crisis and 



* "There's a divinity that shapes our ends, 
Rough-hew them how we will." 

— Shakespeare. 
"He doeth according to his will in the army of heaven 
and among the inhabitants of the earth." — Daniel iv: 35. 



Was He an Inspired Prophet? 23 

furnished clearer proofs that he — and he alone — was 
capable of bringing it to a successful issue. 

As we read the story of his early life in connection 
with the history of his administration, we are ready to 
believe that the goddess of Liberty had found him an 
infant hidden in the forests of Kentucky, and had com- 
mitted him to the arms of the young Republic with the 
solemn injunction, "Take this child and nurse it for 
me, and I will give thee thy wages ; for the day will 
surely come when the American people will need his 
strong arm and clear head and great soul, that they 
may preserve their place among the nations of the 
earth !" 

It may possibly be too much to claim that our 
Union could not have been saved without Lincoln ; but 
who else could have exercised such wisdom and ren- 
dered such service as he did from the hour when he 
assumed the duties of his office until the hour of his 
assassination P"^ 

From first to last he was the head and front of 
the nation. While he sought advice and wisdom from 
every quarter they could be obtained the judgment and 
conscience of the Executive were always in his own 
keeping, and his own brain ''divined," and his own 
hands marked out the course of his administration. 



* "Without doubt the greatest man of rebellion times, 
the- one matchless* among forty millions for the peculiar 
difficulties of the period was Abraham Lincoln." — Gen. 
James Longsi'reet. 



24 Essay on Lincoln : 

His strong eye pierced every cloud and every 
season of darkness ; his strong heart rose above every 
excitement and every depression of the conflict. 

Guided by him the ship of state moved through 
the wild storms of the war, and never deviated from 
its course. Amid tempest and strife and doubt and 
distrust and darkness of the deepest kind he steered 
ever onward. The nation's mind and heart and ma- 
terial interests were all committed to this faithful pilot's 
hands ; and in times of severest stress, and when all 
else seemed to fail, we trusted him; for we knew that 
he was honest and true — and exceedingly wise ! 

With the scepter of power many men have 
achieved great deeds, even to the setting up and pull- 
ing down of kings and princes and the turning and 
overturning of nations and kingdoms, and have 
thereby raised themselves high above the great mass 
of their fellow-men. But Lincoln sat down in the 
congregation of the people, and with no scepter in his 
hand but the scepter of the people's will, and no 
armor on his breast but the armor of their love and 
confidence, met and mastered the most stupendous 
crisis in the history of the world ! 

His statesmanship is, indeed, without a parallel 
in history. Among all the princes and rulers of the 
earth there is none like him, there is none equal to him, 
no, not one. 

As we survey the panorama of his administration. 



Was He an Inspired Prophet? 25 

is not the hand of Providence ever visible? Was he 
not clearly chosen — yea, "foreordained'' — to lead us 
through the wilderness into the promised land of 
peace and order and liberty ? Can we doubt that there 
was a God in Israel, as we read the whole history of 
the war in the lines and wrinkles of his face ? * 



*"As the state of society in which Lincoln grew up 
passes away, the world will read with increasing wonder of 
the man, who, not only of the humblest origin, but remain- 
ing the simplest and most unpretending of citizens, was 
raised to a position of power, unprecedented m our history; 
who, although the gentlest and most peace-loving of mortals, 
unable to see any creature suffer without feeling a pang in 
his own breast, and yet wielded the power of government 
when stern resolution and relentless force were the order 
of the day, and then won and ruled the popular mind and 
heart by the tender sympathies of his nature; who was a 
cautious conservative by temperament and mental habit, and 
yet led the most sudden and sweeping social revolution ot 
our time; who preserving his homely speech and rustic 
manner, thrilled the souls of men with utterances of won- 
derful beauty and grandeur; who while in power was ridi- 
culed and maligned by sectional passion and an excited party 
spirit, and yet around whose bier friend and foe gathered 
to praise him as one of the greatest of Americans and one 
of the best of men." — Carl Schurz. 



CHAPTER IV. 

His Moral Teachings. 

WAS the gift of prophecy in Lincoln as well as 
the genius of statesmanship? Was he a re- 
vealer of moral and spiritual truth as well as an ex- 
ponent of political wisdom? Was he a preacher of 
righteousness as well as the greatest President of the 
greatest Republic of the earth? Was he a messenger 
of the Lord Most High as well as the champion of 
Liberty and the Rights of Man? If he deserves the 
highest rank among the rulers and statesmen of the 
world, is he also worthy to stand with Jesus and Moses 
and Elias on the Mount of Transfiguration? 

Our only way to answer these questions is to study 
his life and character as well as his various utterances, 
if haply we may enter into the spirit of which he was 
possessed. He certainly left us no "code of morals," 
neither did he assume to give any specific directions 
whereby we should regulate our conduct in all the af- 
fairs of life. On the contrary, he always appealed to 
men's" reason, and whether he was always conscious of 
such an effort or not, he sought to quicken and inspire 
their moral sense. 

Mr. Lincoln not only knew how to appeal to men's 
26 



Was He an Inspired Prophet? 27 

reason, but knew how to reach it, and how to throw 
such Hght on all questions he discussed that men's 
moral sense was always brought into exercise in greater 
or less measure. 

And so clear was his own understanding and so 
liappy was he in the expression of his- thoughts, that 
he was rarely misunderstood or misconstrued. In all 
his speeches and messages and letters no man can find 
a trace of cant or affectation or evasion of the point at 
issue ; in all of them simplicity and sincerity as well as 
reason and logic are as clear as the sunlight. Nowhere 
can we find a false note or a passage of dubious or un- 
certain meaning. Even faults of diction and rhetoric 
are **few and far between." He was a literary artist 
of the highest order, not merely on account of his 
native genius, but because he drew his inspiration from 
the very fountain of truth, and from 

"The Spirit that dost prefer 
Before all temples the upright heart and pure." 

Can any man give higher proof of his own inspira- 
tion than his power to inspire the souls of other men ?* 



* "The test of inspiration is the power to inspire. This 
is the very definition of inspiration given in the so often 
misquoted text in Paul's letter to Timothy, 'All scripture, 
given by inspiration of God, is profitable for doctrine, for 
reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteous- 
ness.' * * It matters not what the writing be called -— 
drama, fiction, epic, ballad, lyric, narrative, biography — if 
it does this work, it is holy. If it inspires, it is inspired; 
the helping word is the divine word." — O. B. Frothingham. 



28 Essay on Lincoln : 

Could we ask other evidence in Lincoln's case than the 
fact that the people heard him most gladly while he 
lived, and that since his death his words have passed 
into the permanent literature of the world? 

In all his utterances — especially is this the case 
with those in which the moral tone is most predomi- 
nant — we can almost hear him saying to the people : 
"Whatever wisdom and knowledge I possess and what- 
ever dignity or honor may belong to the position I 
occupy, I am willing to share with you ; for we are all 
creatures of the same blood and citizens of the same 
Republic." 

Neither his talents nor his virtues ever oppress 
us or repel us or make him persona non grata to us ; 
his touch is always genial, cordial, cheering, inspiring; 
his voice is always that of a father or an elder brother f 

As we have said, Mr. Lincoln left no final defini- 
tion of virtue and no precise rules of conduct ; but in 
his recognition of men's reason and moral sense he fur- 
nished an example that might well be cherished and 
followed by all teachers of morality and ministers of 
righteousness. Most clearly may we learn from him 
that the law of the Lord has been written on the souls 
of men, and that the highest virtue can only be attained 
by those whose reason and conscience have been duly 
exercised, even as bodily health is promoted by bodily 
exercise, and mental development depends on the exer- 
cise of our mental faculties. 



Was He an Inspired Prophet? 29 

And yet his moral teaching was not devoid of 
concrete form and direct application. He was a most 
practical statesman, ;md if it must be conceded that he 
was also a "practical politician," he not only bronght 
his moral sense into his politics, but always sought the 
vindication of his measures and policies by commend- 
ing them to the reason and conscience of the people. 

"Some of our Generals complain that I impair 
discipUne and subordination in the army by my par- 
dons and respites; but it makes me feel rested after a 
hard day's work, if I can find some excuse for saving a 
poor fellow's life, and I go to bed greatly rejoiced to 
think how happy the signing of my name has made him 
and his family."* Who could answer such an argu- 
ment as this! . „ ^^,, 
"If slavery isn't wrong, nothing is wrong. Could 
there be a clearer or terser expression of the sentiment 
that actuated him in all his efforts to deliver his coun- 
try from the curse of that institution? 

Hear his clarion voice in words to the same effect 
at Cooper Institute a few months before he was nomi- 

u.ated for President ; , j .„„ 

"If slaverv is right, all words, acts, laws and con- 
stitutions against it are wrong, and should be silenced 
and swept away. If it is right, we can not justly ob- 

Z:^iZu^\« never, abused his great P°";'='-- ^l^l'^/^^e 
.vere on the side of mercy v^d humanity^ ^.^^^ 

gentlest memory of our earth. — Robert u. i" 



30 Essay on Lincoln : 

ject to its becoming national. If it is wrong, the South 
can not justly insist upon its extension and enlarge- 
ment. All they ask we could readily grant, if we 
thought slavery right. All we ask they could readily 
grant, if they thought it wrong. Their thinking it 
right and our thinking it wrong is the precise fact on 
which depends the whole controversy. * * Wrong 
as we think slavery is, can we, while our votes will 
prevent it, allow it to spread into the national terri- 
tories and overrun us here in the free states? If our 
sense of duty forbids this", then let us stand by our duty 
fearlessly and effectively. * "^ Let us have faith, 
that Right makes Might, and in that faith let us — to 
the end — dare to do our duty as we understand it." 

'Tn your hands, my • dissatisfied fellow-country- 
men, and not in mine" — he pleaded with the Southern 
people in his first Inaugural'*' — *'is the momentous issue 
of civil war. The government will not assail you. You 
can have no conflict without being yourselves the ag- 
gressors. You haVe no oath registered in Heaven to 
destroy the government, while I shall have the most 
solemn one to 'preserve, protect and defend it.' " 

'Tt was with the deepest regret," he declared in 
his first message to Congress,t ''that the Executive 
found the duty of employing the war power of the 
government; he could but perform this duty or sur- 



* See Appendix "A." 
tSee Appendix "B." 



Was He an Inspired Prophet? 31 

render the existence of the government. He felt that 
he had no moral right to shrink nor even to count the 
chances of his own life in what might follow." 

Whether Mr. Lincoln entered upon his great task 
with a premonition of his assassination, as this utter- 
ance leads us to beheve he did, or not, his life was 
fully consecrated to the people's service and laid down 
on his country's altar! 

"And upon this, sincerely believed to be an act of 
justice, warranted by the Constitution upon military 
necessity" — such were the closing words of the im- 
mortal proclamation of Emancipation^-^— "I invoke the 
considerate judgment of mankind and the gracious 
favor of Almighty God!" 

It is very easy for us to see that this proclamation 
could not have been carried into effect, if it had not 
been sustained by the voice of the people and the mili- 
tary power of the government ; it may not be so easy 
for us to see — but is it any the less true? — that the 
support of the people could not have been secured, nor 
could the proclamation have been made effective, if 
there had not been breathed into it the mind and soul of 
the President by whom it was issued. 

Mr. Lincoln was a wonderful interpreter and ex- 
ponent of the people's will ; but he was also the peo- 
ple's leader and inspirer and herald of light and truth. 

* See Appendix "C." 



32 Essay on Lincoln: 

And they always recognized his voice as the voice of 
one having authority; because his vision was very 
clear, and they knew he was possessed of the spirit of 
truth ! 

"I would save the Union," he wrote to Horace 
Greeley, in reply to certain strictures of the latter in 
the New York Tribune a short time before the Eman- 
cipation Proclamation was issued. "I would save it the 
shortest way under the Constitution. * -^ What I 
do about slavery and the colored race I do because I 
believe it helps to save the Union, and what I forbear 
I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save 
the Union. U shall do more whenever I believe doing 
more will help the cause; and I shall do less whenever 
I believe doing less will help the cause. I shall try to 
correct errors when shown to be errors ; and I shall 
adopt new views so fast as they shall appear to be true 
views. I have here stated my purpose according to my 
views of official duty ; and I intend no modification of 
my oft-expressed personal wish that all men every- 
where could be free !" 

What faithfulness to his trust as executive of 
the government he here reveals, while he kept the love 
of liberty burning as a sacred fire in his breast ! And 
how close the good President brought himself to the 
hearts of all his people by such utterances as this. 

''You say," Mr. Lincoln wrote to certain self- 
styled "unconditional Union men" in Illinois some 



Was He an Inspired Prophet? 33 

months after the poHcy of emancipation and the arm- 
ing of negroes had been inaugurated, "you will not 
fight to free negroes. Some of them seem willing to 
fight for you, but no matter. Fight you then ex- 
clusively to save the Union. I issued the proclama- 
tion on purpose to aid you in saving the Union. 
Whenever you shall have conquered all resistance to 
the Union, if I shall urge you to continue fighting, it 
will then be an apt time for you to declare that you 
will not fight to free the negroes. "^^ * If negroes 
stake their lives for us, they must be prompted by the 
strongest of motives, even the promise of freedom. 
And the promise, being made, must be kept. 

''Peace does not appear so far distant as it did. 
I trust it will come soon and come to stay, and so 
come as to be worth the keeping in all future time. 
It will then have been proved that among freemen 
there can be no successful appeal from the ballot to 
the bullet, and that they who take such appeal must 
lose their case and pay the costs. And then there will 
be some black men who can remember that with silent 
tongue and clenched teeth and steady eye and well- 
poised bayonet, they have helped mankind on to this 
great consummation ; while I fear there will be some 
white men unable to forget, that with malignant heart 
and deceitful speech they have striven to hinder it. 



34 Essay on Lincoln : 

"Still, let us not be over sanguine of a speedy 
final triumph. Let us be quite sober. Let us diligently 
apply the means, never doubting that a just God, in 
His own good time, will give us the rightful result." 



I 



, CHAPTER V. 

His More Direct Prophecies. 

WHEN Mr. Lincoln was a young man of nine- 
teen or twenty years, he made a trip to the 
city of New Orleans in the capacity of a flat-boatman, 
and while there saw a number of negroes chained to- 
gether and sold at public auction like horses or cattle. 
The spectacle is said to have made such an impres- 
sion on his feelings that he exclaimed: "If I ever 
get a chance to strike this institution of slavery, I will 
strike it hard !" 

Was there a far vision of the Presidential office 
and the Emancipation Proclamation in his youthful 
soul as he uttered these words? 

If a clear and marvelous prescience of the future 

— if a clear understanding of all the forces working 
in the present — if the firm resolve to speak the truth 
and deliver his soul by declaring the principles in- 
volved in the political contest in which he was engaged 

— if the desire to have the people appreciate the grav- 
ity and magnitude of the crisis that was before them 

— if confidence that the reason and conscience of the 
people would secure the ultimate triumph of justice — • 

35 



2,6 Essay on Lincoln : 

if all these things combined are sufficient to prove Mr. 
Lincoln an inspired prophet, we need only quote the 
opening and closing paragraphs of his speech accept- 
ing the nomination for United States Senator in the 
year 1858: 

"If we could first know where we are and whither 
we are tending, we could then better judge what to 
do and how to do it. We are now far on into the fifth 
year since a policy was initiated with the avowed ob- 
ject and confident promise of putting an end to slav- 
ery agitation. Under the operation of that policy that 
agitation has not only not ceased, but has constantly 
augmented. In my opinion, it will not cease, until a 
crisis shall have been reached and passed. 'A house 
divided against itself can not stand.' I believe this 
government can not permanently endure half slave 
and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dis- 
solved — I do not expect the house to fall — but I do 
expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all 
one thing or all the other. Either the opponents of 
slavery will arrest the further spread of it, and place 
it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that 
it is in course of ultimate extinction, or -its advocates 
will push it forward, until it shall become alike lawful 
in all the states, old as well as new, North as well as 
South." 

'The result is not doubtful. If we stand firm, 



Was He an Inspired Prophet? 37 

we shall not fail. Wise counsels may accelerate, or 
mistakes delay it, but sooner or later, victory is sure 
to come!'' 

And what were all Lincoln's speeches during the 
campaign of this year — including the seven debates 
with Douglas — but an unfolding of this same proph- 
ecy in the ears of the people ? 

Douglas, indeed, gained the senatorship ; but the 
debates made Lincoln President; and the Presidency 
gave him immortal fame from the rivers to the ends 
of the earth ! 

And when he died the house was no longer divided 
against itself ! 

What a large measure of prophecy may also be 
seen in the brief address which Mr. Lincoln delivered 
at the Springfield depot, on the occasion of his depart- 
ure for Washington to assume the duties of the Pres- 
idency : 

"My friends, no one, not in my position can ap- 
preciate the sadness I feel at this parting from you. 
To this people I owe all that I am. Here I have lived 
more than a quarter of a century. Here my children 
were born, and one of them lies buried. I know not 
how soon I shall see you again. A duty devolves upon 
me, which is, perhaps, greater than that which has 
devolved upon any other man since the days of Wash- 
ington. He never could have succeeded without the 
aid of the Divine Providence upon which he relied at 



38 Essay on Lincoln : 

all times ; and I feel that I can not succeed without the 
same Divine aid which sustained him. In the same 
Almighty being I place my reliance for support; and 
therefore I hope, my friends, you will all pray that I 
may receive that Divine assistance without which I 
can not succeed, but with which success is certain." 
As we ponder this address it seems to us that if 
Mr. Lincoln had expressed his "sub-conscious" thought 
and feeling on this occasion, it would have been in 
words like these: ''My friends and neighbors, the 
sadness I feel at parting from you to-day is greater 
than I can understand or express. Can it be that I 
shall never again see this city where I have lived so 
many years, and zv'here my children zvere born and one 
of them is buried f I fully realize that I am assuming 
the administration of the government in the midst of 
a most serious and painful crisis, and that I shall need 
wisdom as great as even Washington possessed; and 
my supreme desire and hope is to administer the gov- 
ernment as faithfully and successfully as he did. 
None of us can see clearly and fully into the future ; 
but as I believe that this government has always been 
favored and upheld by the Divine Providence, and 
that I have been providentially called to the respon- 
sibility of presiding over it, I have great faith and 
confidence that if I do my whole duty as President 
of the country, the necessary wisdom will be given 
to me, and that my administration will be successful 



Was He an Inspired Prophet? 39 

and a blessing to the whole country. Will you not 
therefore give me your sympathy and confidence and 
earnestly pray that I may always have the blessing 
and support of Divine Providence, so that I may 
administer the government successfully as well as 
honestly and faithfully?" 

Four years from the delivery of this most pro- 
phetic address the lifeless body of Mr. Lincoln was 
brought back to Springfield as "consecrate dust," 
watered with the tears of all the people ; for by his 
genius and virtue the great Republic was saved. 

But he could not save himself ! 

"There's a burden of grief on the breezes of spring, 
And a song of regret from the bird on its wing; 
There's a pall on the sunshine and over the flowers, 
And a shadow of graves on these spirits of ours. 

"For a star has gone out from the night of our sky, 
On whose brightness we gazed as the war-cloud rolled by. 
So tranquil and steady and clear were its beams, 
That they fell like a vision of peace on our dreams. 

"Then bear him home gently, great son of the West ! 
'Mid her fair blooming prairies lay Lincoln to rest ; 
A Mecca his grave to the people shall be, 
And a shrine evermore for the hearts of the free !" 

What a message of beauty* and beneficence as 



* "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of 
him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace, that 
bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation, that 
saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth." — Isaiah lii : 7. 



40 Essay on Lincoln : 

well as one of hope and courage were the closing words 
of Lincoln's first Inaugural : "The mystic chords of 
memory stretching from every battle field and every 
patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all 
over this broad land will yet swell the chorus of the 
Union, when touched as they surely will be by the 
better angels of our nature." 

What shall we say concerning the Gettysburg ad- 
dress?''' Is it not an evangel of liberty and a message 
of life and hope to all mankind? Surely no element 
of inspired prophecy is lacking in this marvelous clas- 
sic. Prescience of the future — comprehension of the 
past and the present — patriotism of the highest order 
— the most ardent devotion to the principles of free 
government — faith in the wisdom and intelligence 
of the people as well as the wisdom and goodness of 
the Divine Providence ; — all these are so clearly re- 
vealed that the wayfaring man may see and feel their 
quickening and inspiring influence. To doubt the di- 
vine inspiration of this address is to doubt the verdure 
of the earth and the shining of the sun and stars ; it 
is to deny that the Spirit of God still dwells in the 
souls of men. 

^'\nd shall not the truths proclaimed in this ad- 
dress be forever established in our minds and hearts? 
Shall it ever be said bv us that our Declaration of In- 



See Appendix "D. 



Was He an Inspired Prophet? 41 

dependence is an unmeaning abstraction, when Lin- 
coln has told us that our government was "conceived 
in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men 
are created equal?" Shall we ever lose faith in the 
virtue and intelligence of the people, when Lincoln 
has declared that "government of the people, by the 
people and for the people shall not perish from the 
earth !" 

Rather let this address be inscribed on all our 
hearts and hearthstones ; let it be "written large" on 
the walls of all our school houses and churches and 
colleges and universities — let us transmit it to our 
children and our children's children unto the latest 
generation of them that shall inhabit the free soil of 
America. 

For where in all history and in all literature can 
we find anything superior to this address? Is it not 
equal, if not more than equal, to St. Paul's sermon 
on Mars Hill? 

And the second Inaugural?* To what loftiest 
heights of inspiration and moral dignity does Mr. Lin- 
coln here rise. How calmly and yet how seriously he 
accepts the high trust which has again been committed 
to his hands. How low he bows his head before the 
all-wise Providence whose ways are past finding out- 
How faithfully and yet how kindly and tenderly he 



* See Appendix "E. 



42 Essay on Lincoln : 

speaks concerning the righteous judgment that has 
come upon both the North and the South on account 
of the ''offense" of slavery. How subhme is his assur- 
ance of "a just and lasting peace" as the reward of 
our faithful and continued well-doing. 

This address was far more than the words of the 
President who had passed through four years of war 
and was pouring out his soul in the ears of his people ; 
it was the voice of the prophet who had stood on the 
mountain before the Lord Jehovah, and had come 
down to write the message he had received, not on 
tables of stone, but on the tables of men's hearts to 
abide through endless ages. For verily this address 
contains all the law and the prophets and all the reli- 
gions and moralities of the world. We deem it no 
irreverence to place it in the same category with the 
Psalms of David and the Sermon on the Mount. 

On the dark background of slavery and secession 
and a great civil war, in letters of clearest light, the 
message of Lincoln is presented to our eyes. In all 
that he said and in all that he wrote the love of lib- 
erty and humanity shines forth like a bright and morn- 
ing star — like a star that giveth hope, that giveth 
comfort, that giveth peace, that giveth inspiration — 
like a star that grows brighter and brighter unto the 
perfect day. His rhetoric and logic and even his 



Was He an Inspired Prophet? 43 

jokes and anecdotes and the quaint humor* for which 
he was noted, were charged with the high purpose 
of leading the people in the right path and securing 
for them the blessings of a perpetual Union, wherein 
should dwell both peace and righteousness. 

He hated slavery with a perfect hatred; but the 
supreme battle of his life against this institution was 
fought ''with malice toward none and with charity 
for all." While employing the utmost powers of the 
government in the suppression of the Rebellion, all his 
-utterances were full of kindness and good-will toward 
the people of the South ; and all his acts were prompted 
hy his desire to promote their welfare as well as that 
of the Northern people. His patriotism was as broad 
as the whole land ; and his heart was generous enough 

* "Then his broad good humor, in which he delighted, 
and in which he excelled, was a rich gift to this wise man 
It enabled him to keep his secret, to meet every kind of 
man and every rank in society, to take off the edge ot the 
severest decisions, to mask his own purpose and sound his 
companion and to catch with true instinct the temper ot 
everv* company he addressed. And more than all, it is to 
a man of severe labor, in anxious and exhausting crises, 
the natural restorative, good as sleep, and is the protection 
of the over-driven brain against rancor and insanity. _ 
He is the author of a number of good sayings so disguised 
as pleasantries, that they had no -reputation at first but as 
iesf^ and only later, by the very acceptance and adoption 
they find in the mouths of millions, turn out to be the wis- 
dom of the hour. I am sure if this man had ruled in a 
iDcriod of less facilitv of printing, he would have become 
mythological in a vefy few years, like Aesop or Pilpay or 
one of the Seven Wise Masters, by his fables and proverbs. 
— R. W. Emerson. 



44 Essay on Lincoln : 

and strong enough to throb for each and every fellow- 
countryman. 

And what amazing magnanimity and generosity 
he always manifested toward his political opponents. 
How completely he rose above all personal feeling in 
the discussion of every issue which they forced upon 
him, begging them to consider only the country's wel- 
fare and to labor with him for the salvation of the 
Union. 

There is no absolute perfection in the works of 
man; but who of us could add anything to Lincoln's, 
message? Would we subtract a word or a sentence 
from it? 



CHAPTER VI. 

His Life and Character. 

BUT clear as Mr. Lincoln's utterances all are, they 
become still clearer and more luminous as we 
read the story of his life and learn to appreciate his 
character. What a child of Nature he was ! What 
an array of human virtues he presents to our eyes ! 
How supremely and exquisitely human were all the 
elements of his character !* How great and yet how 
^'common" — how strong and yet how gentle — how 
wise and yet how modest — how self-reliant and yet 
how humble — how earnest and yet how patient and 
even-tempered — how just and yet how kind and char- 
itable — how righteous and yet how free from self- 
righteousness — he always was ! In him we may truly 



* "What makes Lincoln lovable more than any other 
one thing is the perfect combination of humility and strength. 
Charity for others was a natural sister to humility about 
himself, and unfaltering determination was perfectly con- 
sistent with both. Pomp and ceremony raised no awe in 
him. The beating in human veins was what he heard, and 
heard with a fulness of music that comes only to the richest 
natures. It is his trueness that we love, the absence of 
artifice, of convention, of vanity, of any false value, the 
strength of character and insight wedded to the simplicity 
and gentleness of a noble heart." — Norman Hapgood. 

45 



46 Essay on Lincoln : 

say that judgment and mercy met together, and right- 
eousness and peace kissed each other. 

*We may not be able to define the many virtues 
that we find in his character; but we can hardly fail 
to appreciate and admire them when they are made 
so luminous by his services to his country and to* 
mankind.* 

And yet a catalogue of all his virtues would not 
fully reveal his character to us ; for his supreme ex- 
cellence must be seen in the marvelous combination 
of these virtues, even as the colors of the rainbow 
are glorified in our eyes by the manner in which they 
are blended together on the face of the sky ! 

Iti the light of Lincoln's history his face reveals to 
us the very beauty of holiness; and in his homely 
form we may see such an incarnation of greatness and 



* To conceive the good and express it in words is not 
enough ; it is necessary to make it succeed amongst men. 
In morals, as in art, precept is nothing; practice is every- 
thing. The idea that lies hidden in a picture of Raphael 
is of small moment; it is the picture itself that is prized. 
In the same manner, truth is very little thought of when it 
only reaches the condition of mere feeling; it only attains- 
its full value when it is realized in the world as a certain 
fact. Some men df mediocre morality, have written a num- 
ber of good maxims ; and some very virtuous men, on the 
other hand, have done nothing to preserve the tradition of 
virtue. The palm is his, who has been powerful both in 
words and deeds, who has discerned the good, and at the 
price of his blood, has made it triumph. — Ernest Renan, 
"Life of Jesus." 



Was He an Inspired Prophet?' 47 

goodness, of genius and virtue, of manliness and gen- 
tleness, that we might fitly pronounce him the eighth 
wonder of the world I"^ 

And is he not worthy to be called the prophet and 
friend of m.ankind as well as the greatest citizen of 
America? Have not all nations and races of men the 
right to circle around his tomb and hail him as an 
elder brother ! 

His life is, indeed, a plea for virtue and goodness 
and truth that shall be felt until the end of time. His 
character is 

Argument for Liberty! 

That all the powers of the earth can not pull down ; it 
is a tree of fadeless green and immortal beauty, v/hose 
leaves are for the healing of all the nations ; it is a 
colossal statue,t whose base is the broad area of our 



*The "Seven Wonders" of the ancient world were (1) 
the Egyptian Pyramids, (2) the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus 
(3) the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, (4) the Walls and 
Hanging Gardens at Babylon, (5) the Colossus at Rhodes, 
(6) the statue of Zeus at Olympia, (7) the Pharos or 
Lighthouse at Alexandria. 

t 'A granite rock by the mountain side 
Gazed on the world, and was satisfied; 
It watched the centuries come and go; 
It welcomed the sunlight, it loved the snow. 

"But all at once with a mighty shock, 

Down from the mountain was hurled the rock. 



48 Essay on Lincoln : 

Republic, and whose summit is found among the stars 
of heaven ! 

In every act of Lincohi's Hfe he seems to say to 
us, ''Be just and fear not ; let all the ends at which you 
aim be Truth's and God's." And as he lies moulder- 
ing in his tomb, we can almost hear him cry, ''Beware, 
ye nations, O, beware of slavery — beware of injustice 
and oppression of every kind — beware of fraud and 
corruption — beware of all unrighteousness !" 

Say, all ye people, is not the symmetry and pro- 
portion of Lincoln's character without a flaw ? — "with- 
out spot or wrinkle or any such thing?" Is there any 
quality of superior manhood in which he is found 
wanting? Would we add anything to his record, or 
take anything from it ? 

"From the union of these colonists, the puritans 
and cavaliers" — thus spoke the late Henry W. Grady 



All bruised and battered and broken in pride, 
'Oh, God is cruel !' the granite cried. 

"But a dreaming sculptor in passing by, 
Gazed on the granite with thoughtful eye, 
Then stirred with a purpose, supreme and grand. 
He bade his dream in the rock expand. 

"And lo, from the broken and shapeless mass. 
That grieved and doubted, it came to pass, 
That a glorious statue of infinite worth, 
A statute of Lincoln adorned the earth!" 

— Ella Wheeler Wilcox. 



Was He an Inspired Prophet? 49 

in an address delivered in Boston a short time before 
his death — "from the straitening of their purposes and 
the crossing of their blood, slow perfecting through a 
century, came he who stands as 



. The First Typical American ! 

The first who comprehended in himself all the strength 
and gentleness, all the majesty and grace of this Re- 
public, Abraham Lincoln. He was the sum of puritan 
and cavalier ; for in his ardent nature were fused the 
virtues of both, and in the depths of his great soul, 
the faults of both were lost ! He was greater than 
puritan, he was greater than cavalier, in that he was 
American, in that in his homely form were gath- 
ered all the vast and thrilling forces of this ideal gov- 
ernment of ours ; charging it with such tremendous 
meaning, and so elevating it above human suffering, 
that martyrdom, though infamously aimed, came at last 
as a fitting close to a life consecrated from its cradle 
to human liberty !" 

And thus Henry Watterson : "Surely Lincoln was 
one of God's elect, not in any sense a creature of cir- 
cumstance or accident. As I look into the crystal globe 
that, slowly turning, tells the story of his life, I see 
him growing from boyhood to manhood amid scenes 
that seem to lead to .nothing but repression and abase- 



50 Essay on Lincoln : 

ment — no teachers — no books — no chart, except his 
own untutored mind — no compass, except his own un- 
discipHned will — no light, save light from Heaven ; 
yet like the caravel of Columbus, struggling on and on 
through the trough of the sea, always toward the 
destined land. Later, I see him, the preferred among 
his fellows, ascend the eminence reserved for him, en- 
countering the derision of opponents and the distrust 
of supporters, yet unawed and unmoved, because thor- 
oughly equipped for the emergency. "^ * Born as 
lowly as the Son of God in a hovel, reared in penury 
and squalor, with no gleam of light or fair surround- 
ing,, without graces, actual or acquired, without name 
or fame or official training — it was reserved for this 
strange man, late in life, to be snatched from ob- 
scurity, raised to supreme command at a supreme mo- 
ment, and entrusted with the destiny of a nation. * * 
To say that during the four years of his administration 
he filled the vast space allotted him in the eyes and ac- 
tions of mankind, is to say that he was inspired of 
God ; for in no other way could he have acquired such 
wisdom and virtue. * * Where did Shakespeare 
get his genius? Where did Mozart get his. music? 
Whose hand smote the lyre of the Scottish plowman 
and stayed the life of the German priest? God, and 
God alone ; and as surely as these were inspired of 
God, Lincoln was ; and a thousand years hence, no 



Was He an Inspired Prophet? 51 

drama, no tragedy, no epic poem, will be filled with 
greater wonder or be followed by mankind with deeper 
feeling than that which tells the story of his life and 
his death." 



CHAPTER VII. 

His Religious Faith. 

WE must not fail to take note of Mr. Lincoln's 
religion ; for no man can be called a prophet 
of his race who does not share in the religious senti- 
ment, which is its vital breath. But highly as he re- 
spected the Christian church as an institution and as 
the expression and embodiment of the religious faith 
of the people, he never bcame one of its communicants 
or gave any formal adhesion to its ''doctrines." He 
was very familiar with the teachings of the Bible ; but 
we have no reason to think he considered it "inerrant" 
or "infallible" or an absolute "revelation" from Heaven, 
or that he recognized any authority in it, except the 
authority which belongs to the truths it contains. He 
certainly never so declared himself ; and in the case of 
the Scriptural quotations which he used, he seemed to 
make them the expression of his own thoughts, as by 
the divine right of assimilation. 

He made no public expression of his opinion con- 
cerning the "divinity" of Christ ; but if ever any man 
could claim kinship and affinity with the founder of 
Christianity, he could, so similar were they in spirit and 

52 



Was He an Inspired Prophet? 53 

purpose and in their power to inspire the love and devo- 
tion of their fellow-men. 

How much alike they also were in originality and 
their freedom from dogmatism and external author- 
ity. And how simple and sublime was their faith 
in the Infinite Father! How pure was their worship 
of Him ! 

We know not how nearly the mass of mankind 
may rise to their level in these respects; but let us 
not lightly esteem our divine birthright. May not we, 
too, be sons of God and stand before Him face to face? 

Lincoln may not have accepted all the miracles* 
and legends of the New Testament as veritable history ; 
but the principles therein taught were his principles, 
and the Sermon on the Mount was the keynote of his 
life. 

That he also held the prophets and righteous men 
of the Old Testament in the highest esteem is clear 
from the quotations he made from their writings and 
his manifest assimilation of their spirit and temper. 

What would have been his precise attitude toward 
Buddhism, Mohammedanism or any other system, if it 



* "Thus were it not miraculous, could I stretch forth my 
hand and clutch the Sun? Yet thou seest me daily stretch 
forth my hand, and therewith clutch many a thing, and swmg 
it hither and thither. Dost thou fancy, then, that the Miracle 
lies in miles of distance or in pounds avoirdupois of weight, 
and dost not see that the true, inexplicable, God-revealing 
miracle lies in this, that I can stretch forth my hand at all 
and clutch aught therewith? — Thomas Carlyle. 



54 Essay on Lincoln: 

had been the prevailing faith of his day, we can only 
conjecture; but we may safely assert that he would 
have recognized whatever virtue could be found in its 
tenets and doctrines, and would have cherished the 
highest possible respect for its votaries, if only they 
feared God and sought after the works of righteous- 
ness. 

Lincoln's religion was like his statesmanship, 
unique, peculiar, transcendent. If it can be said of 
him in any sense, that he was not a Christian, it is be- 
cause he was more than a Christian. If a formal con- 
fession of Christianity as a supernatural revelation 
from Heaven and a formal connection with the visible 
or organized church be essential to the name of Chris- 
tian, it can not be applied to him ; but if deep and 
fervent piety — if faith in the God of truth and justice 
— if the most ardent love for the human race — if the 
intensest sympathy for the poor, the lowly and the 
oppressed — if willingness to clasp the hand of the 
prisoner and the slave in kindness and friendliness — 
if the ornament of a meek and tranquil spirit, — if all 
these things are sufficient to constitute a Christian, then 
was he a Christian of Christians, and no man can take 
this crown from his head.* 



* Lincoln was a man of profound and intense religious 
feeling. We have no purpose of attempting to formulate 
his creed ; we question if he himself ever did so. We only 
have to look at his authentic public and private utterances to 
see how deep and strong, in all the latter part of his life, 



Was He an Inspired Prophet? 55 

Shall we also pronounce him a Hebrew of He- 
brews in respect of his faith in the God of Righteous- 



ness 



Perhaps his religious nature was so broad that it 
could not be compassed within the limits of any par- 
ticular creed or system of doctrines. Perhaps he saw 
the soul of truth in all religious systems so clearly, 
that he could not accept any one of them as a complete 
and final revelation of truth. Perhaps he so clearly 
realized that all religious creeds and systems have 

was the current of his religious thought and emotion. He 
continually invited and appreciated at their highest value the 
prayers of good people. The pressure of the tremendous 
problems by which he was surrounded, the awful moral sig- 
nificance of the conflict in which he was the chief combatant, 
the overwhelming sense of personal responsibility which 
never left him for an hour — all combined to produce in 
a temperament naturally serious and predisposed to a spiritual 
view of life and conduct, a sense of dependence on the 
guidance of a Superior Power as well as a reverent accept- 
ance of such s-flidance. From that morning, when stand- 
ing amid the falling snowflakes on the railway car at Spring- 
field he asked the prayers of his neighbors to the memorable 
hour when he humbled himself before his Creator m the 
sublime words of the Second Inaugural, there was not an 
expression from his lips or his pen, but proves that he 
held himself answerable in his every act to a more august 
tribunal than any on earth. The fact that he was not a 
member of any church, and was singularly reserved m refer- 
ence to his personal religious life, gives only the greater 
force to these striking proofs of his profound reverence 
and faith."— Hay and Nicolay's "Life of Lincoln." 



56 Essay on Lincoln : 

their roots in human nature*, that he could not look 
upon the Christian system as the only ''deposit" of 
truth committed to the children of men. Perhaps his 
conception of Deity was so vast that he could not see 
all the divine attributes manifested in the person of 
the historic Christ. Perhaps he felt that some of the 
doctrines of Christianity, as they were formulated and 
preached in his day, would be a hindrance rather than 
a help to his'religious faith, so clear was his vision of 
the things which are unseen and eternal, and so close 
was his relation to the Author of his being. Perhaps 



* Among all these structures of spiritual organization 
there is vital sympathy. It lies not in what they know ; for, 
in a scientific sense, they are all alike in knowing nothing. 
Their point of sympathy lies in what they have sublimely 
created through longing imagination. In all these faiths there 
is the same alloy of human superstition, the same fables of 
miracle and prophecy, the same signs and wonders, the same 
successive births and resurrections. In point of knowledge 
they are all helpless; in point of credulity they are all 
puerile; in point of aspiration, they are all sublime. They 
all feel after God, if haply they might find him." — T. W. 

HiGGINSON. 

"We must remember that amid the many errors and 
corruptions of religion, it has always asserted and diffused 
a supreme verity. From the first, the recognition of this su- 
preme verity, in however imperfect a manner, has been its 
vital element; and its various defects, once supreme, but 
gradually diminishing, have been so many failures to recog- 
nize in full that which was recognized in part. The many 
imperfections of religion are only imperfections as measured 
by ah absolute standard, and not by a relative one. Speaking 
generally, the religion current in each age and among each 
people has been as near an approximation to the truth, as it 
was then and there possible for men to receive." — Herbert 

SF'ENCER. 



Was He an Inspired Prophet? 57 

he feh no need of a daysman or mediator, because he 
himself knew the Lord face to face. 

"I and my Father are one," said Jesus when he 
was on the earth. 

Well might Lincoln have cried with the poet Ten- 
nyson : 

"Speak to him, soul, for he hears, and spirit with spirit may 

meet ; 
Closer is he than breathing, and nearer than hands and 

feet." 

He can not be pronounced wholly "orthodox ;" but 
if he must be counted as heterodox, his heterodoxy was 
not that of blindness or indifference or of mere nega- 
tion, but that of the pure heart and open mind, that of 
the largest comprehension and the clearest spiritual 
vision. 

All prophets are not heretics, and all heretics are 
not prophets ; but the two characters sometimes reveal 
a marvelous affinity for each other. 

Per contra, there is a principle of belief in our 
natures that is as eternal and fundamental as any prin- 
ciple that belongs to us, and therefore all they who 
enter the path of progress must walk by faith and not 
(wholly) by sight. Man can not live by bread alone, 
nor by logic alone, nor yet by knowledge alone ; he 
that hclieveth shall be saved ! 

Important as the facts of the earth and the uni- 
verse may be to us, bare facts will no more satisfy our 



58 Essay on Lincoln : 

minds and souls than the bare earth without trees or 
plants or grass or flowers would satisfy our eyes. We 
must think and feel and wonder and believe and imag- 
ine* and aspire as well as know. 

Only let us be careful to believe (or disbelieve) 
with our hearts unto rightousness, as Lincoln did, for 
verily in the realm of things unseen and spiritual, it is 
hozv we believe or disbelieve as well as what we believe 
— we had almost said rather than what we believe — 
that makes us children of the truth and the light ! 

We should be very patient with both the skeptic 
and the dogmatist ; for each of them, if he be but an 
humble and honest seeker of the truth, represents an 
essential principle of human nature ; and somewhere 
between their divergent paths is the way of life. 

Concerning Mr. Lincoln let us be satisfied to 
know that he had that belief in God and His Provi- 
dence which is counted for righteousness, and that 
men of every creed and nation may serve the same 
God whom he served and honored. Whatever truth 



* "The Imagination — the divinest of mental faculties — 
is God's self in the soul. All our other faculties seem to me 
to have the touch of the brown earth on them; but this one 
carries the verj^ livery of Heaven. It reveals to us the differ- 
ence between the visible and the invisible, teaching us how to 
take material and visible things and carry them up into the 
realm of the invisible and the immaterial, and how to bring 
down immaterial things and embody them in visible and mate- 
rial symbols ; and so being God's messenger and prophet, it 
stands between our soul and God's. — Henry Ward Beecher. 



Was He an Inspired Prophet? 59 

and whatever error there may be in the proposition 
that every worshiper creates his own Deity, we may 
be certain that Lincoln's God was the Lord of Truth 
and Light and Wisdom and of all Goodness what- 
soever. 

In vain shall we search his record to find any sys- 
tem of theology or any particular form or mode of 
worship ; but not in vain shall we search for the spirit 
which dwells in all true worshipers of the Infinite 
Father ! 

His creed comprehended the truth that is to be 
found in all other creeds ; and the temple in which 
he worshiped is large enough to admit all nations 
within its walls. 

Mr. Lincoln's willingness to fulfill the law of ser- 
vice and sacrifice* was so closelv related to his reli- 



* Vicarious sacrifice is the law of being. It is a mys- 
terious and fearful thing to observe how the universe is 
liuilt on this law, how it penetrates and pervades all nature, 
so that if it were to cease, nature would no longer exist. 
The mountain rock must becorne dead soil before the herb 
can grow; the destruction of the mineral is the life of the 
vegetable. The corn of wheat dies; and out of its death 
more abundant life is born. Out of the soil in which dead 
leaves are buried, the young tree shoots vigorously, and 
strikes its roots deep down into the realm of decay and 
death. Upon the life of the vegetable world, the myriad 
forms of higher life sustain themselves — the sacrifice of 
life to give life. * * Farther still : it is as impossible 
for man to live as it is impossible for him to be redeemed, 
except through vicarious sacrifice. The anguish of the 
mother is the condition of the child's life. His very being 
has its roots in the law of sacrifice ; and from the hour 



6o Essay on Lincoln : 

gious faith, that we must pronounce them almost 
identical. Here, indeed, was the crowning excellence 
of his character and the "bright particular glory" of 
his life. 

In obedience to this divinest of laws he not only 
bore censure and reproach without complaint, but 
labored for the salvation of his country with almost 
infinite patience and a measure of faith and courage 
that was the wonder of the world. We can not assert 
that he foresaw his tragic end as clearly as he foresaw 
the triumph of the Union cause, but how else can we 
account for the sadness that oppressed him at times 
and left its mark so visible upon his face?* 



of his birth this becomes the law which rules his existence, 
— Frederick W. Robertson. 

* Mr. F. B. Carpenter, to whom the country is indebted 
for the famous painting, "Signing the Emancipation Procla- 
mation," has left this statement concerning Mr. Lincoln: 
"It has been the business of my life to study human faces; 
and Mr. Lincoln's face was the saddest one I ever painted. 
I have seen him at times, when his careworn, troubled ap- 
pearance was enough to bring tears of sympathy into the 
eyes of his most violent enemies. I recall, particularly, one 
day when I saw him all alone, pacing up and down a nar- 
row passage of the White House, his hands behind him, 
his head bent forward on his breast, heavy black rings under 
his eyes, showing sleepless nights — altogether such a pic- 
ture of the effects of weighty cares and responsibilities as 
I had never seen. And yet he always had a kind word for 
everyone, and almost always a genial smile, and frequently 
relieved himself at such times by some harmless pleasantry. 
'If it were not this vent for my feelings, I should die !' he 
exclaimed on one occasion." 



Was He an Inspired Prophet? 6i 

"Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray," he 
said in his last Inaugural, "that this mighty scourge of 
war may soon pass away ; yet if God wills that it con- 
tinue until all the wealth piled by the bondman's two 
hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be 
sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn by the 
lash shall be paid with another drawn by the sword, 
as was said three thousand years ago, so it must still 
be said. The judgments of the Lord are true and 
righteous altogether !' " Could Mr. Lincoln have ex- 
pressed himself in words like these, unless the shadow 
of his fate was resting on his soul, and he had received 
some sort of premonition that his own blood must be 
placed in the scales of the Eternal Justice P"^' 

But if he was, indeed, walking through the val- 
ley of the shadow of death at this time, there was no 
faltering or wavering in the discharge of his duty, nor 
the least weakening of his courage and devotion. 
Rather was his soul transfigured before the eyes of 
the people, as he closed his address with the immortal 
words, "With malice toward none, with charity for 
all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see 
the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are 
in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who 
shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his 
orphan, to do all that may achieve and cherish a just 



* "And without shedding of blood is no remission."— 
Hebrews ix : 12. 



62 Essay on Lincoln : 

and lasting peace among ourselves and with all na- 
tions." 

Heaven grant that this prophecy may be realized 
and fulfilled through all the ages ! 

Was not Lincoln faithful to his high trust — even 
unto his death? May we not cherish his memory in 
our hearts, not merely because he died for us, but be- 
cause he was willing so to die? 

Let us never cease to thank God for the ''unspeak- 
able gift" of Abraham Lincoln ; for who can tell what 
might have been the result of the war, if we had not 
had so wise and so good a man in the Presidential 
chair? Like Moses of old, he stood in the breach and 
warded off the calamities that might else have fallen 
on the nation. Not only so; but we shall never know 
how far the valor of the Union soldiers was due to 
his sublime faith and courage, and how far the patri- 
otism and devotion of the people were inspired by his 
utterances and services — and his prayers.* 



* "God brought up Lincoln as he brought up David 
from the sheepfolds to feed Jacob, his people, and Israel, 
his inheritance. And he fed us faithfully and truly. He fed 
us with counsel when we were in doubt, with inspiration 
when we sometimes faltered, with caution when we would 
be rash, with calm, clear, trustful cheerfulness through many 
dark days and hours. He made our souls glad with the 
love of liberty that was in his soul. He showed us how 
to love truth and justice and yet be charitable, how to 
hate all wrong and oppression, and yet not treasure resent- 
ment or a single personal injury or insult. He fed all his 
people from the highest to the lowest, from the most privi- 



Was He an Inspired Prophet? 63 

Would we serve the same God whom Lincoln 
served and pray as he prayed? Then let not our 
prayers be of the earth, earthy; let them not be 
marred with any guile or hypocricy or vain self-seek- 
ing. Let us pray for large hearts — for pure thoughts 
— for high ideals — for noble aspirations — for prac- 
tical wisdom — for clear sense and understanding, — 
that we may discern the things which are right and 
true and fulfill the end and aim of our being on the 
earth. 

Was it not after this manner — whatever form of 
words he used — that Lincoln always prayed ? 

leged to the most enslaved. * * And at the last behold 
him with his hand reached out to feed the South with mercy 
and the North with charity and the whole land with peace, 
when the Lord who had sent him called him home, and his 
work was done." — Phillips Brooks. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Lessons to be Learned -from Lincoln's Life. 

WHILE the imitation of every good man should 
consist in the assimilation of his spirit rather 
than the repetition of his words and acts, yet so far 
as we need a model, how safe a model Lincoln would 
be for men, women and children in all conditions of 
life. Not far astray, we think, could any one go, who 
seeks to manage his affairs and discharge the daily 
tasks of his life as he believes Lincoln would do in 
his place. And surely no one would greatly err, who 
seeks to regulate his conduct according to the prin- 
ciples on which Lincoln's life was based, or who pre- 
sides over his own life in the same spirit in which 
Lincoln presided over the government. 

Nay, more ; is not his character so perfect that 
we may consider him the type and expression of the 
ideal life which we should ever cherish and strive to 
attain ? 

His life seems to reveal the very heart of Nature 
to us. His virtue is the flavor of the apple ; it is the 
fragrance of the flower ; it is the beauty of the sky ; 
it is the brightness of the sun ; it is the song of the 

64 



Was He an Inspired Prophet? 65 

morning stars; it is the breath of Him who created 
the worlds ! 

Should not our virtue be of the same type and 
quality? Should it not be ever luminous and radiant 
like his, that man may see our good works and glorify 
our Father in Heaven? 

And as the days of our years increase in number 
should not our lives, like his, become greater and 
nobler, more and more beautiful, and more and more 
beneficent ? 

Let us all learn from Lincoln's example, not only 
to be just and faithful in all situations of life, but 
to be "good-natured," to be kind-hearted, to be 
€ven-tempered, to be merciful, to be charitable, and 
to exercise these virtues at all times and toward all 
men, even as the sun shines on the evil and the good, 
and the rain falls on the just and on the unjust. 

If any of us cannot cherish and practice these 
virtues without compromising our ''dignity" or sacri- 
ficing our self-respect, Heaven help us ! 

Perhaps there is no more important lesson — cer- 
tainly there is no clearer one — to be learned from 
Lincoln's life than the lesson that whoever would be a 
"gentleman" — or a "lady" — must always be gentle, 
and that whoever would enjoy a proper measure of 
dignity and self-respect must always respect the self- 
respect of other people. 

Let us not forget that Mr. Lincoln's kindly spirit 



66 Essay on Lincoln : 

was manifested not only toward his friends, but also 
toward his enemies and even toward the enemies of 
his country. Let no man claim to be like him who 
cherishes any malice or resentment in his heart, or 
strives to "get even" with those who have injured him 
in any manner. 

Savage man may know no other way to protect 
himself — and we must all recognize self-protection 
as the first law of our nature — than the law of re- 
taHation ; but civilized man should be able to find a 
better and surer way — even the way of Lincoln. 
And his way was always the way of magnanimity. 

We should ever cherish the love of liberty in our 
breasts, even as he did, and let us see to it that like 
him we respect the liberty and rights of others as 
fully as we do our own. The man who does not re- 
joice in the freedom of others comes far short of ful- 
filling all righteousness, neither has he fully learned 
the lesson of good citizenship. ' 

"I am glad to remember," writes Hon. John Hay, 
who was Lincoln's private secretary during the four 
years of his administration, ''that he said to me not 
many days before he went to join the august assembly 
of just men made perfect, 'A man who denies equality 
of rights to others is hardly worthy of freedom ; but I 
would give even to him all the rights I claim for my- 
self.' A plain phrase, but all the law and the prophets 
is in it." 



Was He an Inspired Prophet? 67 

The love of liberty should be a rational principle 
with us as well as a humane sentiment or passion. 
We should desire the largest possible freedom for all 
men, not merely because men love freedom and enjoy 
it, but because the more freedom and the larger sense 
of freedom they are permitted to> enjoy, if their moral 
sense be not inactive or perverted, the higher style of 
manhood they can attain. Men can not be made 
worthy of freedom, unless they are permitted to 
breathe the air of freedom ! 

Recurring to Lincoln's example, however, let it 
be noted, that while he was a most ardent lover and 
devotee of liberty, he was, at the same time, a most 
faithful exponent of law and order and was always, 
mindful of the moral obligations which are so essen- 
tial to true manhood and good citizenship. 

Amid all the complex and complicated conditions, 
of our lives, our rights and interests will often conflict 
or seem to conflict with those of other people ; and 
there is no solution of the questions arising out of 
such a situation but a sentiment of justice and fairness 
and a recognition of the Golden Rule as the standard 
of our lives. 

Power and authority over others may come to us, 
but they should always be exercised in kindness and 
good will ; and no lust of power should ever find 
place or lodgment in our breasts. O, that all kings 
and princes and parents and teachers and governors 



68 Essay on Lincoln: 

and legislators and officers of armies and navies and 
keepers of prisons and public officials of every grade 
were imbued with the spirit of Lincoln, and would learn 
from his example that their power has not been given 
to them for their own satisfaction or emolument, but 
for the service of others. And may we not all learn 
from him as well as from Jesus the Christ, that he who 
would be the greatest of all must be the friend of all 
and the servant of all ! 

Surely we may learn from these great teachers 
that the life of service is the only life worth living ; for 
it is only by living such a life that we can secure the 
proper development of our natures* — only thus can 
we attain the roundness and completeness of character 
which is our natural inheritance — only thus can we 
■^'iulfill ourselves." 

Shall we ever become so just and honest and so 



* "The liberal soul shall be made fat; and he that 
■watereth shall be watered also himself." — Proverbs xi : 25. 

"For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but 
■whosoever will lose his life for my sake the same shall 
save it." — Luke ix : 21. 

"In truth the law of the spiritual life is unlike the 
law of the physical life in this, that it increases by what 
it imparts, and lives by what it loses — the more we give 
to others the more we have left." — Washington Gladden. 

"When we rise from the material or animal world and 
enter the spiritual realm, we see the law of service and sacri- 
fice in its grandest proportions. * * Men do not become 
great by caring only for themselves, but by serving and caring 
for others. The greatest man is he who does the most for 
liis fellow-men ; and the lowest man is he who does the 
least for his fellow-men." — Henry Ward Beecher. 



Was He an Inspired Prophet? 69 

highly evolved in our ethics, that whatever wealth or 
talents we may possess or whatever position we occu- 
py, we will neither ask nor desire more service or re- 
spect from other people than vv^e are willing to give 
to them ? Verily we shall not come to the full measure 
of the moral stature of Lincoln until this is the case. 

Let us not close our eyes to the fact that the exer- 
cise of power and the possession of wealth''' —and oft- 
times even the advantages of education — tend to de- 
humanize and unspiritualize us ; and our only way to 
save our souls alive from this danger is to cultivate an 
active and friendly interest in our fellow-men, and 
never forget that they are all made of the same flesh 
and blood as ourselves. 

How happy, then, are all they who can turn the 
means of degradation of which we have spoken into 
means of grace and goodness, and thereby become the 
children of their Father in Heaven ! 

And what a pearl of great price is Lincoln's ex- 
ample in this respect — if we only had the grace and 
wisdom to follow it. 

We cannot help thinking that if Lincoln's princi- 
ples were recognized in the army and navy of the 
United States as they should be, the spirit of caste 
which is so strenuously cherished by the commissioned 
officers as essential to their "dignity" and authority 



* How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the 
kingdom of God. — Mark x : 23. 



JO Essay on Lincoln : 

would be greatly modified, if it were not entirely re- 
moved. They would at least learn that enlisted men 
are their fellow-citizens and have souls as well as 
themselves ! 

Many superintendents and teachers of our public 
schools as well as college and university professors 
might also learn from Lincoln that a cordial and 
friendly and more or less intimate acquaintance with 
their pupils would greatly facilitate their work and en- 
able them to educate the minds and souls of the rising 
generation even more effectively than they are now 
doing. 

Might not many priests and ministers of religion 
also learn from him how to mingle with their people 
and the public and how to exercise the power and in- 
fluence of their office in the spirit of meekness and 
gentleness? 

If Lincoln's ideals of justice and equality could be 
breathed into the souls of all masters and mistresses 
of households — if they could all be made to realize 
that "servants" and "hired girls" are human beings, 
and that they themselves are only human beings, how 
much easier it would be for society to solve the problem 
of domestic service. How long will it require for us 
to see that the degradation of domestic service is an 
injury to society as well as an injustice and injury to 
those who may be called to serve? How long will it 



Was He an Inspired Prophet? 71 

be until the Golden Rule becomes the law of all our 
households, great and small ? 

We know not what remedy Lincoln would propose 
for the "divorce evil" of our day ; but we are very 
safe in saying that he would take both sides of the 
question into consideration, and would favor no meas- 
ures that were based on ecclesiastical authority or a 
traditional interpretation of Scripture and did not refer 
the whole question to the reason and intelligence of the 
people as the court of last resort. 

So far as we know, Mr. Lincoln left no utterance 
directly bearing on the administration of criminal law 
or on the proper treatment of prisoners ; but we think 
if he were to appear on the floor of our 'Trison Con- 
gress" at one of its annual sessions, he would not fail 
to remind the delegates that all their ''reforms" will be 
of little or no avail, unless they recognize and ever re- 
member that prisoners are all men of the same flesh and 
blood as themselves ! He certainly would declare that 
criminal law and prison discipline should always be ad- 
ministered ''with malice toward none and with charity 
for all." 

The same great principle of equality, we believe, 
he would preach to all charitable societies and all asso- 
ciations and organizations that seek the relief of suf- 
fering and the improvement of society. 

Mr. Lincoln was always a supporter of the policy 
of protection to American industries ; but we do not 



72 Essay on Lincoln: 

infer from this, that he would favor the estabhshment 
and perpetuation of huge monopoHes that enable a 
few "captains of industry" to grow richer and richer 
still at the expense of the people who consume their 
products. 

He left us no formula for the solution of the ''la- 
bor problem ;" but if all employers and all employees 
could be imbued with his sentiment of justice and 
would learn to respect each other's manhood — if em- 
ployers were willing to concede a proper balance of 
POWER to their employees, and the latter were always 
careful to exercise their power in reason and modera- 
tion — a long step would be taken in the direction of 
peace and harmony. 

And O, that the great President could rise from 
his tomb and lift up his voice in condemnation of the 
child labor that mars and disgraces the ''progress" of 
our age and cries to heaven for remedy ! 

Would he not tell us that if child labor in factories 
and sweat shops isn't wrong, nothing is wrong ? 

"Do you hear the children weeping, O, my brothers, 

Ere the sorrow comes with years? 
They are leaning their young heads against their mothers; 

And that can not stop their tears. 
The young lambs are frisking in the meadows. 

The young birds are chirping in the nest, 
The young fawns are playing with the shadows, 

The young flowers are blowing toward the west; 



Was He an Inspired Prophet? 73 

But the young, young children, O my brothers, 

They are weeping bitterly; 
They are weeping in the playtime of the others, 

In the country of the free l""^ 

Perhaps a still more serious problem than the labor 
problem is presented to us in the ''bossism" and cor- 
ruption that afflicts our national, state and municipal 
politics. Is there any remedy for this crying evil, ex- 
cept to let it be known of all men that our government 
is, indeed, "a, government of the people, by the people 
and for the people," as Lincoln declared it should ever 
be? Against the power of millionaires and multi-mil- 
lionaires — shall we also speak of coming billionaires ? 
— and great trusts and corporations that seek to con- 
trol our national and state legislation, we must assert 
the sovereign power of the people and their right to 
enact — and execute — whatever laws are necessary to 
preserve our government and the principles on which 
it was established. t 



* From Mrs. Browning's ''Cry of the Children.'" 
t "It is important to this people to grapple with the 
problems connected with the amassing of enormous fortunes, 
and the use of those fortunes, both corporate and individual, 
in business. * * As a matter of personal conviction and 
without attempting to discuss the details or formulate the 
system, I feel that we shall ultimately have to consider the 
adoption of some such scheme as that of a progressive tax 
on all fortunes beyond a certain amount, either given in life 
or devised or bequeathed — a tax so framed as to put it 
out of the power of the owner of one of these enormous 
fortunes to hand on more than a certain amount to any 
one individual, the tax, of course, to be imposed by the 



74 Essay on Lincoln : 

Men have no more ''divine right" to the acquisi- 
tion and transmission of great fortunes than kings and 
emperors have such a right to rule over their subjects 
without their subjects' consent, for the manifest rea- 
son that all wealth is the product of the mental and 
physical labor of the mass of the people. And since 
the right to own any property whatever is derived from 
the consent of the body politic, it belongs to the people 
in their sovereign capacity to prescribe all the limita- 
tions and conditions under which individuals and cor- 
porations may acquire or hold or dispose of their 
wealth, to the end that the welfare of the people may 
be promoted, and that the nearest possible approxima- 
tion to Justice may be secured. The voice of the peo- 
ple is not the voice of God in the sense that the people 
are always wise or always right; but their voice is 
surely the voice of God in the sense that there is no 
higher court to which an appeal can be taken from 
Avhatever they decree. 

If the possessors of great wealth and the heads of 
great corporations can not be persuaded to recognize 
themselves as stewards and servants of the people — 
why should not wealth as well as office be considered 
a public trust ? — they can surely be made to respect 



national, and not the state government." — Theodore Roose- 
velt. 

Pray, Mr. President, why should not the states, also, 



Was He an Inspired Prophet? 75 

the people's power and authority as expressed in stat- 
utes duly made and provided. 

We cannot too clearly realize that enormous for- 
tunes — however acquired — are a menace to the Re- 
public. We must either control them, or be controlled 
by them. 

And the negro problem ? While the white people, 
both North and South, should seek to solve all ques- 
tions concerning the colored race in the spirit of the 
Emancipation Proclamation, the negroes would do well 
to remember that their future depends essentially upon 
themselves, and that they must, indeed, work out their 
own salvation. To this end, let them fully acquaint 
themselves with the story of Lincoln, and emulate his 
virtues with all the powers of their minds and souls. 
Ay, let them write the name of their great liberator 
on their foreheads, and pray that a portion of his spirit 
may ever abide with them ! 

May not Lincoln's patriotism and devotion be 
counted the permanent possession and '"asset" of the 
American people? Is not his great love for us and 
all mankind a moral and spiritual force that will con- 
tinue among us through all the years of the future, con- 
straining'^ us to the practice of every virtue and the 
cultivation of the loftiest ideals in our breasts ? 



levy such a tax for the supnort of their governments and 
the education of their youth ? 

* "For the love of Christ constraineth us." — ii Corin- 
thians V : 14. 



76 Essay on Lincoln : 

May we not ever realize that because he and such 
as he have Hved we may live also ? — and make our 
lives worth living? May we not be quickened by his 
spirit and find in him such an interpreter and mediator, 
that his influence will enable us to see the right and the 
truth and to walk in the paths of wisdom and right- 
eousness? May we not feed on his virtues and ap- 
propriate them to ourselves, so that we shall enter into 
kinship with him, and become sharers — ''joint heirs" 
— in his greatness and glory? 

Let Lincoln's story and his principles be taught in 
our public schools and Sunday-schools and preached to 
all our youths and maidens, if haply they may assimi- 
late his teachings and become partakers of his great 
soul. Let mothers teach their babes resting on their 
knees to admire his homely face and to lisp his great 
name, because he was the friend of little children as 
well as the friend of men and women. And let us all 
emulate the example of the great citizen, who was al- 
ways willing to meet the humblest and the lowliest of 
his fellows on the plane of a common humanity, while 
he could also stand before kings and emperors and all 
the great and wise men of the earth unabashed, their 
equal and peer by divinest right, for that the image 
and superscription of the Most High was stamped upon 
his forehead ! * 



* "There are a few men who have stood the closest 



Was He an Inspired Prophet? ']^ 

And since we rejoice that our government is rec- 
ognized as one of the "powers" of the earth, let us be 
careful that it shall not be known as a spoiler and op- 
pressor, but rather as the friend and protector of all 
upon whom its authority is placed. Wherever our flag 
is raised, let us inscribe on its folds the story of Lincoln 
and the principles for which he lived and died. For 
wherever that story is told, it will thrill the souls of 
men with life and hope; and wherever the name of 
Lincoln is spoken, it will be the synonym of Justice, 
of Humanity, of Equality, and of that Charity (Love), 
without which all other human virtues are but sound- 
ing brass and tinkling cymbal. 

Everywhere men will recognize him as a prophet 
of the Lord, because he loved his country and his fel- 
low men, and will know that he was a divine man be- 
cause he was so human !'^ 



scrutiny and the severest tests, who have been tried in the 
furnace and have proved pure, who have. been weighed in 
the balance and have not been found wanting, who have been 
declared sterling by the general consent of mankind, and 
who are visibly stamped with the image and superscription 
of the Most High. Such men we trust we know how to 
prize; and Mihon was one of these."— T. B. Macaulay. 

If all this could be said concerning England's blind 
poet, can it not be equally said concerning America's martyr 
President? , 

* "If our civilization had done nothing but produce 
Abraham Lincoln and Ralph Waldo Emerson, it would have 
justified its right to be; for these two men, at the opposite 
ends of society, the one without formal opportunity, the 



yS Essay on Lincoln : 

More than forty years have passed since Lincoln's 
death, and we mourn for him still. We can never com- 
prehend the mystery of his sacrifice, but surely it was 
needful that his devotion to his country should be made 
perfect by the laying down of his life, and that his 
message of justice and charity to mankind should be 
sealed zmth his blood! 

As we stand with bowed heads at the shrine of his 
tomb, we may hear no voice but the voice which saith, 
*'Be still, and know that I am God ;" yet may we com- 
fort ourselves with the thought that all the inhabitants 
of the world have mingled their tears with ours, and 
that our great President's memory is crowned with 
the brightest crown ever vouchsafed to man, the crown 
of universal and immortal love ! 



other commanding all the resources of the richest culture of 
his time, were alike in this — that they both proclaimed and 
illustrated the supreme dignity and value of the human spirit, 
the right of a man to be himself without regard to the con- 
ditions in which he happens to be placed. 

"In Lincoln we first saw rugged strength rising like -a 
great mass of rocks against the horizon, then the clefts 
gathering moisture and verdure, then foliage and flowers 
creeping to the summit, and the light of sunset on it all ; 
first rude vigor, then tempered strength, then a great human 
spirit, touched with the pathos of infinite patience and sor- 
row ; an ideal American, who had climbed from the bottom 
to the top, who had educated himself by the way, and in 
becoming supremely great, had remained supremely human." 
Hamilton W. Mabie. 



Was He an Inspired Prophet? 79 

His tomb shall be forever surrounded with 

A Wall of Living Hearts ! 

And over it shall wave in perpetual beauty and gran- 
deur the flag of the nation that he died to save. 

" 'Tis the Star Spangled Banner, O long may it wave^^ 
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!" 

Surely this man was sent from God, not only to 
liberate three million slaves and to die for his coun- 
try, but to teach all nations how to be just, how to be 
honest, how to be righteous, and how to be good. ^ 

His place is not in the tomb ; it is among the im- 
mortals before the face of the Infinite Father, and his 
great soul shall go marching on through all the ages. 

Concerning him we may well employ the words 
of the poet Longfellow : 

"There is no death! What seems so is transition; 

This life of mortal breath 
Is but a suburb of the life elysian, 

Whose portal we call death !" 

Hail, immortal martyr, hero, statesman, President 
of the nation and friend of all mankind I Thy name 
shall never be forgotten; and the star of thy glory 
shall rise higher and grow brighter through all the 
years of time. The people of this great Republic — 
North and South and East and West — shall pay thee 
the tribute of everlasting remembrance, and for ages 



^o Essay on Lincoln: 

of ages shall send up to thee an ofifering of gratitude 
and reverence and love ! 

What the future may bring forth no man knov^- 
eth ; but at the present stage of the world's progress we 
may safely declare that among men born of women 
there has risen none greater or diviner than Jesus of 
Nazareth and i\braham Lincoln of the United States 
of America ! 



APPENDIX, 

8i 



I 



APPENDIX -A." 

Extracts from Lincoln's First Inaugural. 

" T^ ellow-Citisens of the United States: 
\^ "In compliance with a custom as old as the 
government itself, I appear before you to take 
the oath prescribed by the Constitution to be taken by 
the President before he enters on the execution of his 
office. 

^ ^ ^ 

''It is seventy-two years since the first inaugura- 
tion of a President under our National Constitution. 
During that period fifteen different and very distin- 
guished citizens have, in succession, administered the 
executive branch of the government, conducting it 
through many perils and, generally, with great success. 
Yet with all this scope for precedent I now enter upon 
the same task, under great and peculiar difficulties. 

"A disruption of the Federal Union, heretofore 
only menaced, is now formidably attempted. I hold 
that in the contemplation of universal law and of the 
Constitution, the Union of these states is perpetual. 
Perpetuity is implied, if not expressed, in the funda- 
mental law of all national governments. * ^ Con- 
tinue to execute all the express provisions of our 
National Constitution, and the Union will endure for- 
ever, it being impossible to destroy it, except by some 
action not provided for in the instrument itself. 



83 



84 Essay on Lincoln : 

"I therefore consider, that in view of the Consti- 
tution and the laws, the Union is unbroken and to the 
extent of my ability, I shall take care, as the Constitu- 
tion expressly enjoins upon me, that the laws of the 
Union shall be faithfully executed in all the states. 
Considering this to be only a simple duty on my part, 
I shall perfectly perform it, as far as practicable, unless 
my rightful masters, the American people, shall with- 
hold the requisition, or in some authoritative manner 
direct to the contrary. 

"I trust this will not be regarded as a menace but 
only as the declared purpose of the Union that it will 
constitutionally defend and maintain itself. 

"In doing this there need be no bloodshed or vio- 
lence ; and there shall be none, unless it is forced upon 
the National authority. 



''Physically speaking, we cannot separate ; we 
•cannot remove our respective sections from each other, 
nor build an impassable wall between them. A hus- 
band and wife may be divorced and go out of the pres- 
ence and beyond the reach of each other ; but the dif- 
ferent parts of our country can not do this. They 
can not but remain face to face; and intercourse, 
either amicable or hostile, must continue between them. 

'Ts it possible, then, to make that intercourse 
more advantageous or more satisfactory after separa- 
tion than before ? Can aliens make treaties easier than 
friends can make laws? Can treaties be more faith- 
fully enforced between aliens than laws among 
friends? Suppose you go to war, you can not fight 
always ; and when after much loss on both sides, and 



Was He an Inspired Prophet? 85 

no gain on either, you cease fighting, the identical 

questions as to terms of intercourse are still upon you. 

* ^ * 

"The Chief Magistrate derives all his authority 
from the people ; and they have conferred none upon 
him to fix the terms for the separation of the states. 
His duty is to administer the government as it came to 
his hands, and to transmit it unimpaired by him to his 
successor. 

"Why, then, should there not be a patient conh- 
dence in the ultimate justice of the people? Is there 
any better or equal hope in the world ? In our pres- 
ent differences is either party without faith of being 
in the right? If the Almighty Ruler of nations, with 
his eternal truth and justice, be on your side of the 
North or yours of the South, that truth and that jus- 
tice will surely prevail by the judgment of this great 
tribunal, the American people. 

* * * 

"My countrymen, one and all, think calmly and 
well upon this whole subject. Nothing valuable can 
be lost by taking time. 

"If there be an object to hurry any of you m hot 
haste to take a step which you would never take delib- 
erately, that object will be frustrated by taking time; 
but no good object can be frustrated by doing so. 

"Such of you as are now dissatisfied still have 
the old Constitution unimpaired, and on the sensitive 
point, the laws of your own framing under it, while 
the new administration will have no immediate power, 
if it would, to change either. 

"If it were admitted that you who are dissatisfied 



86 Essay on Lincoln : 

hold the right side in the dispute, there is still no 
single reason for precipitate action. Intelligence, 
patriotism, Christianity, and a firm reliance upon Him 
who has never yet forsaken this favored land, are still 
competent to adjust, in the best way, all our present 
difficulties. 

''In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-country- 
men, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil 
war. The government will not assail you. 

''You can have no conflict without being your- 
selves the aggressors. You have no oath registered 
in Heaven to destroy the government ; while I shall 
have the most solemn one to 'preserve, protect and 
defend it.' 

"I am loth to close. We are not enemies, but 
friends; we must not be enemies. Though passion 
may have strained, it must not break, our bonds of 
affection. 

"The mystic chords of memory, stretching from 
every battlefield and every patriot grave to every liv- 
ing heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will 
yet swell the chorus of the Union, when touched, as 
they surely will be by the better angels of our nature !" 



APPENDIX -B." 

Extracts from Lincoln's First Message to Con- 
gress, July 4, 1861. 

^'r^elloiv-Citizens of the Senate and House of Repre- 
r^ sentatives: 

"Having been convened on an extraordinary 
occasion, as authorized by the Constitution, your atten- 
tion is not called to any ordinary subject of Legislation. 
At the beginning of the present Presidential term four 
months ago, the functions of the Federal Government 
were found to be generally suspended within the sev- 
eral states of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mis- 
issippi, Louisiana and Florida, excepting only those 
of the Post-office department. 

* * H« 

''Simultaneously and in connection with all this, 
the purpose to sever the Federal Union was openly 
avowed. In accordance with this purpose, an ordi- 
nance had been adopted in each of these states, declar- 
ing the states to be respectively separated from the 
National Union. A formula for instituting a combmed 
government of those states had been promulgated; 
and this illegal organization, in the character of the 
^'Confederate States" was already invoking recogni- 
tion, aid and intervention from foreign powers. 

"Finding this condition of things and believing 
it to be an imperative duty to prevent, if possible, the 

87 



88 Essay on Lincoln : 

consummation of such attempt to destroy the Federal 
Union, a choice of means to that end became indispen- 
sable. This choice was made and declared in the Inau- 
gural address ; and the policy chosen looked to an 
exhaustion of all peaceful measures before a resort to 
any stronger ones. 

'Tt is thus seen that the assault upon and reduc- 
tion of Fort Sumter was, in no sense, a matter of self- 
defense on the part of the assailants. * "^ Then and 
thereby the assailants of the government began the 
conflict of arms. In this act, discarding all else, they 
have forced upon the country the distinct issue, imme- 
diate dissolution or blood ; and this issue embraces 
more than the fate of these United States. It presents 
to the whole family of man the question whether a 
constitutional Republic or Democracy, a government 
of the people by the same people, can or can not main- 
tain its territorial integrity against its own domestic 
foes. It presents the question whether discontented 
individuals, too few in number to control the Adminis- 
tration according to the organic law in any case, can 
always on the pretenses made in this case, or on any 
other pretenses, or arbitrarily without any pretense, 
break up their government, and thus practically put 
an end to free government upon the earth." 



"It was with the deepest regret that the Execu- 
tive found the duty of employing the war power. In 
defense of the government, forced upon him, he could 
but perform this duty, or surrender the existence of 
the government. No compromise by public servants 
could in this case be a cure, not that compromises are 
not often proper, but that no popular government can 



Was He an Inspired Prophet? 89 

long survive a marked precedent, that those who carry 
an election can only save the government from imme- 
diate destruction by giving up the main point upon 
which the people gave the election." 

''As a private citizen the Executive could not have 
consented that these institutions shall perish ; much 
less could he in betrayal of so sacred a trust as these 
free people had confided to him. He felt that he had 
no moral right to shrink, nor even to count the chances 
of his own life in what might follow. 

"In full view of his great responsibility, he has 
so far done what he has deemed his duty. You will 
now, according to your own judgment, perform yours. 
He sincerely hopes that your views and your actions 
may so accord with his as to assure all faithful citi- 
zens who have been disturbed in their rights, of a cer- 
tain and speedy restoration to them under the Consti- 
tution and laws ; and having thus chosen our course 
without guile and with pure purpose let us renew our 
trust in God, and go forward without fear and with 
manly hearts. 

"Abraham Lincoln.''' 



APPENDIX -C." 

The Emancipation Proclamation. 

'^'l ][ 7HEREAS, on the twenty-second day of Sep- 
Y y tember, in the year of our Lord one thousand 
eight hundred and sixty-two, a proclamation 
was issued by the President of the United States con- 
taining among other things the following, to-wit : 

"That on the first day of January, in the year of 
our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, 
all persons held as slaves within any state or any des- 
ignated part of a state, the people whereof shall then 
be in rebellion against the United States, shall be 
thenceforward and forever free, and the Executive 
government of the United States, including the mili- 
tary and naval authority thereof, will recognize and 
maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no 
act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, 
in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom ; 
''That the executive will on the first day of Janu- 
ary aforesaid by proclamation, designate the states and 
parts of states, if any, in which the people thereof 
respectively shall then be in rebellion against the 
United States, and the fact that any state, or the people 
thereof, shall on that day be in good faith represented 
in the Congress of the United States by members 
chosen thereto at elections wherein a majority of the 
qualified voters of such state shall have participated, 
shall in the absence of strong countervailing testimony, 

90 



Was He an Inspired Prophet? 91 

be deemed conclusive evidence that such state and the 
people thereof are not then in rebellion against the 
United States : 

''Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President 
of the United States, by virtue of the power in me 
vested as Commander-in-chief of the army and navy 
of the United States, in time of actual armed rebellion 
against the authority and government of the United 
States, and as a fit and necessary war measure for 
repressing said rebellion, do, on this first day of Janu- 
ary, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hun- 
dred and sixty-three, and in accordance with my pur- 
pose so to do, publicly proclaimed for the full period 
of one hundred days from the day of the first above 
mentioned order, designate as the states and parts of 
states wherein the people thereof respectively are this 
day in rebellion against the United States, the follow- 
ing, to-wit: Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, except the 
parishes of St. Bernard, Plaquemines, Jefferson, St. 
John, St. Charles, St. James, Ascension, Assumption, 
Terre Bonne, Lafourche, St. Mary, St. Martin, and 
Orleans, including the city of New Orleans, Missis- 
sippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South ^ Carolina, 
North Carolina, Virginia, except the forty-eight coun- 
ties designated as West Virginia; and also the coun- 
ties of Berkeley, Accomac, Northampton, Elizabeth 
City, York, Princess Ann, and Norfolk, including the 
cities of Norfolk . and Portsmouth ; which excepted 
parts are left precisely as if this proclamation were not 
issued. 

"And by virtue of the power and for the purpose 
aforesaid, I do order and declare that all persons held 
as slaves within said states and parts of states are, and 
henceforward shall be free, and that the Executive 



92 Essay on Lincoln : 

government of the United States, including the mili- 
tary and naval authorities thereof will recognize and 
maintain the freedom of said persons. 

"And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared 
to be free to abstain from all violence, except in neces- 
sary self-defense, and I recommend to them, that in 
all cases, when allowed, they labor faithfully for rea- 
sonable wages. 

''And I further declare and make known that 
such persons of suitable condition will be received 
into the armed service of the United States to garri- 
son forts, positions, stations, and other places, and to 
man vessels of all sorts in said service. 

"And upon this, sincerely believed to be an act 
of justice, warranted by the Constitution upon mili- 
tary necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment of 
mankind and the gracious favor of Almighty God ! 

"In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand 

and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. 

"Done at the city of Washington, 

this first day of January, in the year of 

r n our Lord one thousand eight hundred 

'- * ■-' and sixty-three, and of the indepen- 
dence of the United States the eighty- 
seventh. 

"Abraham Lincoln.^^ 
"By the President: 

"Wm. H. Seward, Sec'y. of State/* 



APPENDIX -D." 



The Gettysburg Ad- 
dress. 

''r^ouRSCORE and seven 
1^"^ years ago our fa- 
thers brought 
forth on this continent a 
new nation, conceived in 
Hberty and dedicated to 
the proposition that all 
men are created equal. 
Now we are engaged in 
a great civil war, testing 
whether that nation or 
any nation so conceived 
and so dedicated can 
long endure. We are 
met on a great battle- 
field of that war. We are 
met to dedicate a por- 
tion of it as the final rest- 
ing place of the men who 
here gave their lives that 
that nation might live. 
It is altogether fitting 
and proper that we 
should do this. 

"But, in a larger sense, 
we can not dedicate^ we 
can not consecrate, we 
can not hallow this 
ground. The brave men, 



St. Paul's Sermon on 
Mars Hill. 



Y 



E men of Athens, 
I perceive that 
in all things ye 
are somewhat religious. 

"For as I passed by 
and beheld your devo- 
tions, I found an altar 
with this inscription, To 
THE Unknown God. 
Whom' therefore ye igno- 
rantly worship, him de- 
clare I unto you, God 
that made the world and 
all things therein, seeing 
that he is Lord of heaven 
and earth dwelleth not in 
temples made with 
hands ; neither is he wor- 
shiped with men's hands, 
as though he needed any- 
thing, seeing he giveth to 
all life and breath and all 
things, and hath made of 
one blood all nations of 
men for to dwell on all 
the face of the earth, 
and hath determined the 
times before appointed 
and the bounds of their 



93 



94 



Essay on Lincoln : 



living and dead, who 
fought and struggled 
here have consecrated it 
far above our power to 
add or detract. The 
world will little note nor 
long remember what we 
say here, but it can never 
forget what they did 
here. It is for us, the liv- 
ing, rather to be dedi- 
cated, here, to the unfin- 
ished work, which they 
have thus far so nobly 
carried on. It is for us 
rather to be dedicated to 
the great task remaining 
before us, — that from 
these honored dead we 
take increased devotion 
to the cause for which 
they here gave the last 
full measure of devo- 
tion — that we here 
highly resolve that the 
dead shall not have died 
in vain — that the nation 
shall, under God, have a 
new birth of freedom, 
and that government of 
the people, by the people, 
and for the people shall 
not perish from the 
earth !" 



habitation ; that they 
should seek ihe Lord, if 
haply they might feel af- 
ter him and find him, 
though he be not far 
from every one of us. 
For in him we live and 
move and have our be- 
ing; as certain also of 
your own poets have said. 
For we are also his off- 
spring. 

"Forasmuch, then, as 
we are the oiTspring of 
God, we ou^ht not to 
think that the Godhead is 
like unto gold, or silver, 
or stone, graven by art 
and man's device. 

"And the times of this 
ignorance God winked 
at ; but now commandeth 
all men everywhere to re- 
pent, because he hath ap- 
pointed a day in the 
which he will judge the 
world in righteousness 
by that man whom he 
hath ordained ; whereof 
he hath given assurance 
unto all men in that he 
hath raised him from the 
dead." — Acts 17, 22-31. 



APPENDIX -E." 



Lincoln's Last Inau- 
gural. 



" Hr ^llow-Countrymen: 
\^ ''At this second 

appearing to take 
the oath of the Pres- 
idential office, there is 
less occasion for an ex- 
tended address than there 
was at the first. Then a 
statement, somewhat in 
detail of a course to be 
pursued, seemed fitting 
and proper. Now at the 
expiration of four years, 
during which public dec- 
larations have been called 
forth on every point and 
phase of the great con- 
test, which stiU absorbs 
the interest and engrosses 
the energies of the na- 
tion, little that is new 
could be presented. The 
progress of our arms. 



Extracts from the 
Book of Psalms and 
THE New Testa- 
ment. 

'^'T^HE law of the Lord 
J^ is perfect, convert- 
ing the soul ; the 
testimony of the Lord 
is sure, making wise the 
simple; the statutes of 
the Lord are right, re- 
joicing the heart; the 
commandment of the 
Lord is pure, enlighten- 
ing the eyes ; the fear of 
the Lord is clean, endur- 
ing forever; the judg- 
ments of the Lord are 
true and righteous alto- 
gether. 

"More to be desired 
are they than gold, yea, 
than much fine gold ; 
sweeter also than honey 
and the honeycomb. 
Moreover by them is thy 
servant warned, and in 



95 



96 



Essay on Lincoln : 



upon which all else de- 
pends, is as well known 
to the public as to my- 
self; and it is, I trust, 
reasonably satisfactory 
and encouraging to all. 
With high hope for the 
future, no prediction in 
regard to it is ventured. 

''On the occasion cor- 
responding to this four 
years ago, all thoughts 
were anxiously directed 
to an impending civil 
war. All dreaded it; all 
;sought to avert it. While 
the Inaugural address 
was being delivered from 
this place, devoted alto- 
g e t h e r to saving the 
Union without war, in- 
surgent agents were in 
the city, seeking to de- 
stroy it without war — 
seeking to destroy the 
Union and divide effects 
"by negotiation. Both par- 
ties deprecated war ; but 
one of them would make 
war, rather than let the 
nation survive, and the 
other would accept war, 
rather than let it perish. 
And the war came. 



keeping of them there is 
great reward." — Psalms 

19; 7-II. 

"Let integrity and up- 
rightness preserve me, 
for I wait on thee. Re- 
deem Israel^ O God out 
of all his troubles." — 
Psalms 25, 21-22. 

"Blessed are the unde- 
filed in the way who walk 
in the law of the Lord. 
Blessed are they that keep 
his testimonies and that 
seek him with the whole 
heart. They also do no 
iniquity ; they walk in his 
ways. * * 

"O that my ways were 
directed to keep thy stat- 
utes. Then shall I not 
be ashamed when I have 
respect unto all thy com- 
mandments. I will praise 
thee with uprightness of 
heart when I shall have 
learned all thy righteous 
judgments." — Psalms 
119:1-7. 

"And seeing the multi- 
tudes he went up into a 
mountain ; and when he 
was set, his disciples 
came unto him. And he 



Was He an Inspired Prophet? 97 



"One-eighth of the 
whole population were 
colored slaves, not dis- 
tributed generally over 
the Union, but localized 
in the southern portion of 
it. These slaves consti- 
tuted a peculiar and pow- 
erful interest. All knew 
that this interest was, 
somehow, the cause of 
the war. To strengthen, 
perpetuate and extend 
this interest was the ob- 
ject for which the insur- 
gents would rend the 
Union, even by war; 
while the government 
claimed no right to do 
more than restrict the 
territorial enlargement of 
it. 

''Neither party expected 
for the war the magni- 
tude or the duration 
which it has already at- 
tained. Neither antici- 
pated that the cause of 
the conflict might cease 
with, or even before the 
conflict itself should 
cease. Each looked for 
an easier triumph and a 

■■•7 E L 



Opened his mouth and 
taught them, saying: 

"Blessed are the poor 
in spirit ; for theirs is the 
kingdom of heaven. 
Blessed are they that 
mourn, for they shall be 
comforted. Blessed are 
the meek; for they shall 
inherit the earth. Blessed 
are they which do hunger 
and thirst after right- 
eousness ; for they shall 
be filled. Blessed are the 
merciful; for they shall 
obtain mercy. Blessed are 
the pure in heart; for 
they shall see God. 
Blessed are the peace- 
makers, for they shall be 
called the children of 
God. Blessed are they 
which are persecuted for 
righteousness' sake ; for 
theirs is the kingdom of 
heaven. 



''Ye have heard that if 
hath been said, Thou 
shalt love thy neighbor 
and hate thine enemy; 
but I sav unto vou, Love 



98 



Essay on Lincoln : 



result less fundamental 
and astounding. 

''Both read the same 
Bible and pray to the 
same God; and each in- 
vokes his aid against the 
other. It may seem 
strange that any men 
should dare to ask a just 
God's assistance in 
wringing their bread 
from the sweat of other 
men's faces ; but let us 
judge not, that we be not 
judged. The prayer of 
both could not be an- 
swered; that of neither 
has been answered fully. 
The Almighty has his 
own purposes. 'Woe unto 
the world because of of- 
fenses, for it must needs 
be that offenses come; 
but woe unto that man 
by whom the offense 
Cometh.' 

"If we shall suppose 
American slavery to be 
one of those offences, 
which in the Providence 
of God must needs come, 
but which, having contin- 
ued through his appoint- 
ed time, he now wills to 



your enemies, bless them 
that curse you, do good 
to them that hate you, 
and pray for them which 
despitefully use you and 
persecute you ; that ye 
may be the children of 
your Father which is in 
Heaven; for he maketh 
his sun to shine on the 
evil and on the good, and 
sendeth rain on the just 
and on the unjust." — 
Matthew 5, 1-14. 

"Recompense to no 
man evil for evil. Pro- 
vide things honest in the 
sight of all men. If it 
be possible, as much as 
lieth in you, live peace- 
ably with all men. 

"Dearly beloved, 
avenge not yourselves, 
but rather give place unto 
wrath ; for it is written. 
Vengeance is mine, I will 
repay, saith the Lord. 
Therefore if thine enemy 
hunger, feed him ; if he 
thirst, give him drink: 
for in so doing thou shalt 
heap coals of fire on his 
head. 

"Be not overcome of 



Was He an Inspired Prophet? 99 



remove, and that he gives 
to both North and South 
this terrible war, as the 
woe due to those by 
whom the offence came, 
shall we discern therein 
any departure from those 
divine attributes which 
believers in a living God 
have always ascribed to 
him? 

''Fondly do we hope, 
fervently do we pray, 
that this mighty scourge 
of war may speedily pass 
away. Yet if God wills 
that it continue until all 
the wealth piled by the 
bondman's two hundred 
and fifty years of. unre- 
quited toil shall be sunk, 
and until every drop of 
blood drawn by the lash 
shall be paid with another 
drawn by the sword, as 
was said three thousand 
years ago, so must it still 
be said, 'The judgments 
of the Lord are true and 
righteous altogether !' 

"With malice toward 
none, with charity for all, 
with firmness in the 
right, as God gives us to 



evil, but overcome evil 
with good." — - Romans 
12, 17-21. 

"Though I speak with 
the tongues of men and 
of angels, and have not 
charity, I am become as 
sounding brass or a tink- 
ling cymbal. And though 
I have the gift of proph- 
ecy, and understand all 
mysteries and all knowl- 
edge, and though I have 
all faith, so that I could 
remove mountains, and 
have not charity, I am 
nothing. And though I 
bestow all my goods to 
feed the poor, and though 
I give my body to be 
burned, and have not 
charity, it profiteth me 
nothing. 

"Charity suffereth long, 
and is kind ; charity en- 
vieth not; charity vaunt- 
eth not itself; is not 
puffed up ; doth not be- 
have itself unseemly ; 
thinketh no evil; rejoic- 
eth not in iniquity, but re- 
joiceth in the truth ; bear- 
eth all things ; believeth 
all things ; hopeth all 



L OF C. 



lOO 



Essay on Lincoln : 



see the right, let us strive 
on to finish the work we 
are in, to bind up the na- 
tion's wounds, to care for 
him who shall have 
borne the battle and for 
his widow and his or- 
phan, to do all that rnay 
achieve and cherish a 
just and lasting peace 
among ourselves and with 
all nations." 



things ; endureth alt 
things. 

"Charity never faileth; 
but whether there be 
prophecies they shall fail; 
whether there be tongues, 
they shall cease ; whether 
there be knowledge, it 
shall vanish away. * * 
And now abideth Faith, 
Hope, Charity, these 
three ; but the greatest of 
these is Charity." — i 
Corinthians 13: 1-13 



SEP 11 i90i 



